Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Clare Boothe Luce (American Playwright)

Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87,) originally Ann Clare Boothe, was an American playwright, politician, and author whose distinctive satirical humor and impactful role in American politics have left an enduring legacy. Luce is celebrated for her spirited demeanor and sharp wit, as evidenced by memorable phrases like “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Born in New York City, Luce completed her education in private schools before embarking on a career at Vogue magazine in 1930, where she established herself as a skilled and witty writer. Her venture into theater gained momentum with the success of her first major play, The Women (1936,) a biting satire on the lives and gossip of high-society women, praised for its incisive dialogue and keen observations on female relationships. This triumph set the stage for her subsequent successful plays, including Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1938) and Margin for Error (1939.)

Luce’s influence extended beyond the arts: in 1942, she made history as the first woman elected to represent Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her political journey reached new heights when President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy in 1953, a groundbreaking achievement as the first American woman in such a diplomatic role. She was married to Henry Luce, the publisher of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated magazines.

In addition to her contributions to theater and politics, Luce authored well-received works like the autobiographical Stuffed Shirts (1936) and the historical drama Ladies and Gentlemen (1984.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Clare Boothe Luce

Woman knows what Man has too long forgotten, that the ultimate economic and spiritual unit of any civilization is still the family.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Family

No woman has ever so comforted the distressed or distressed the comfortable. On Eleanor Roosevelt
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Safety

In politics women type the letters, lick the stamps, distribute the pamphlets and get out the vote. Men get elected.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Elections, Voting

But much of what Mr. Wallace calls his global thinking is, no matter how you slice it, still globaloney. Mr. Wallaces warp of sense and his woof of nonsense is very tricky cloth out of which to cut the pattern of a post-war world.
Clare Boothe Luce

Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Courage, Bravery

Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals [with] no cure except as a guillotine might be called a cure for dandruff.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Communism

But if God had wanted us to think just with our wombs, why did He give us a brain?
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Women

A man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self in the mirror of some woman’s eyes.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Love

A man’s home may be his castle on the outside; inside, it is more often his nursery.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Men, Home

They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Men, Conversation

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Happiness

Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, lessens the friction of social contacts. It is only in lies, wholeheartedly and bravely told, that human nature attains through words and speech the forbearance, the nobility, the romance, the idealism, that—being what it is—it falls so short of in fact and in deed.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Ego, Deception/Lying

In the final analysis there is no other solution to man’s progress but the day’s honest work, the day’s honest decisions, the day’s generous utterances and the day’s good deed.
Clare Boothe Luce

There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.
Clare Boothe Luce

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, She doesn’t have what it takes. They will say, Women don’t have what it takes.
Clare Boothe Luce

You see few people here in America who really care very much about living a Christian life in a democratic world.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Apathy

No good deed goes unpunished.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Pessimism, Service

I don’t have a warm personal enemy left. They’ve all died off. I miss them terribly because they helped define me.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Enemy, Enemies

You know, that’s the only good thing about divorce; you get to sleep with your mother.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Divorce

I refuse the compliment that I think like a man, thought has no sex, one either thinks or one does not.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Thinking, Thoughts, Thought

I hope I shall have ambition until the day I die.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Ambition

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Censorship

The politicians were talking themselves red, white and blue in the face.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Politics

Male supremacy has kept woman down. It has not knocked her out.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Feminism, Women

Always remember, Peggy, it’s matrimonial suicide to be jealous when you have a really good reason.
Clare Boothe Luce
Topics: Jealousy

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