Booth Tarkington

An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband.

— Booth Tarkington

The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.

— Booth Tarkington

Gossip is never fatal until it is denied. Gossip goes on about every human being alive and about all the dead that…

— Booth Tarkington

Take your work seriously but never take yourself seriously and do not take what happens either to yourself or your work seriously.

— Booth Tarkington

Youth cannot imagine romance apart from youth.

— Booth Tarkington

Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.

— Booth Tarkington

“My wife says Ambersons don’t make lettuce salad the way other people do; they don’t chop it up with sugar and vinegar…

— Booth Tarkington

The only safe male rebuke to a scornful female is to stay away from her - especially if that is what she…

— Booth Tarkington

Some day the laws of glamour must be discovered, because they are so important that the world would be wiser now if…

— Booth Tarkington

Mystics always hope that science will some day overtake them.

— Booth Tarkington

The understanding smile of an old wife to her husband is one of the loveliest things in the world.

— Booth Tarkington

“Thus began the Great Tar Fight...”

— Booth Tarkington

Boyhood is the longest time in life for a boy. The last term of the school-year is made of decades, not of…

— Booth Tarkington

“In the days before deathly contrivances hustled them through their lives, and when they had no telephones- they had time for everything:…

— Booth Tarkington

“So far as Alice was concerned Russell might have worn a placard,'Engaged'. She looked upon him as diners entering a restaurant look…

— Booth Tarkington

Superciliousness is not safe after all, because a person who forms the habit of wearing it may some day find his lower…

— Booth Tarkington

“Is this life?'Alice wondered, not doubting that the question was original and all her own. 'Is it life to spend your time…

— Booth Tarkington

“Like so many women for whom money has always been provided without their understanding how, she was prepared to be a thorough…

— Booth Tarkington

He had not yet learned that the only safe male rebuke to a scornful female is to stay away from her -…

— Booth Tarkington

There aren't any old times. When times are gone they're not old, they're dead! There aren't any times but new times!

— Booth Tarkington

Destiny has a constant passion for the incongruous.

— Booth Tarkington

Christmas day is the children's, but the holidays are youth's dancing-time.

— Booth Tarkington

“There is a fertile stretch of flat lands in Indiana where unagarian Eastern travelers, glancing from car windows, shudder and return their…

— Booth Tarkington

Whatever does not pretend at all has style enough.

— Booth Tarkington

I'm not sure he's wrong about automobiles," he said. "With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization…

— Booth Tarkington