Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Dorothy Parker (American Humorist, Journalist)

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967,) née Rothschild, was an American short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and critic who was well-known for her witty remarks, biting prose, and verse satires. She wrote book reviews and short stories for The New Yorker magazine, becoming one of its renowned wits. Her style of spontaneous wit and acerbic criticism has had a lasting influence.

Born in West End, near Long Beach, New Jersey, to Scottish-Jewish parents, Parker never finished high school. She began work in 1916 as a theatre reviewer for Vanity Fair and turned into a book reviewer for The New Yorker in 1927. Her first book of poems, Enough Rope (1927,) became a best-seller; this allowed her to quit her job and work freelance. Parker remained a leading contributor to The New Yorker. She was one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table, an informal literary group.

Enough Rope, together with Sunset Gun (1928) and Death and Taxes (1931,) was collected in Not So Deep as a Well (1936.) Parker’s short prose pieces printed in Laments for the Living (1930) and After Such Pleasures (1933) were accumulated in Here Lies (1939.)

Parker also collaborated on several film scripts, including A Star is Born (1937) and The Little Foxes (1941.) Her extraordinary talent for witty epigrams is evident throughout her work.

A lifelong advocate of left-wing causes, Parker worked as a newspaper correspondent in Spain during the civil war. She left her estate to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Dorothy Parker

Gratitude—the meanest and most sniveling attribute in the world.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Gratitude

The best way to keep children at home is to make home a pleasant atmosphere – and to let the air out of the tires.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Home, Children

Lips that taste of tears, they say,
Are the best for kissing.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Kiss, Crying

Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Manners

Enjoyed it! One more drink and I’d have been under the host.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Parties, Party

Why is it no one ever sent me yet one perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get one perfect rose.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Wealth, Giving, Charity

They laid their hands upon my head,
They stroked my cheek and brow;
And time could heal a hurt, they said,
And time could dim a vow.
And they were pitiful and mild
Who whispered to me then;
The heart that breaks in April, child;
Will mend in May again.
Oh, many a mended heart they knew;
So old they were, and wise.
And little did they have to do
To come to me with lies!
Who flings me silly talk of May
Shall meet a bitter soul;
For June was nearly spent away
Before my heart was whole.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Heart

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Boredom, Curiosity, Bores

Money is only congealed snow.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Snow

Drink, and dance and laugh and lie, love the reeling midnight through, for tomorrow we shall die! (But, alas, we never do.)
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Party, Parties

Well, there are always those who cannot distinguish between glitter and glamour …
Dorothy Parker

And if my heart be scarred and burned, the safer, I, for all I learned.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Experience

Women and elephants never forget.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Memories

Work is the province of cattle.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Work

Telegram to a friend who had just become a mother after a prolonged pregnancy: Good work, Mary. We all knew you had it in you
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Birth, Pregnancy

I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damned things.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Quotations

He’d have given me rolling lands,
Houses of marble, and billowing farms,
Pearls, to trickle between my hands,
Smoldering rubies, to circle my arms.
You- you’d only a lilting song,
Only a melody, happy and high,
You were sudden and swift and strong-
Never a thought for another had I.
He’d have given me laces rare,
Dresses that glimmered with frosty sheen,
Shining ribbons to wrap my hair,
Horses to draw me, as fine as a queen.
You- you’d only to whistle low,
Gayly I followed wherever you led.
I took you, and I let him go-
Somebody ought to examine my head!
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Choice

I don’t know much about being a millionaire, but I’ll bet I’d be darling at it.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Wealth

All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn’t sit in the same room with me.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Writing, Legacy, Autobiography

Hollywood money isn’t money. It’s congealed snow, melts in your hand, and there you are.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Hollywood

As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Difficulty

Art is a form of catharsis.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Arts, Art, Artists

Out in Hollywood, where the streets are paved with Goldwyn, the word
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Fame

Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Sorrow, Sadness

Travel, trouble, music, art,
A kiss, a frock, a rhyme –
I never said they feed my heart,
But still they pass my time.
Dorothy Parker

Money cannot buy health, but I’d settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Health

Where’s the man could ease a heart, like a satin gown?
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Fashion, Dress

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch is, and it darts away.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Love

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Friendship, Sorrow, Reflection, Wine, Idleness

This book is not to be tossed lightly aside, but to be hurled with great force.
Dorothy Parker
Topics: Books, Reading

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