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Portrait of Elsie de Wolfe

Elsie de Wolfe

(1865–1950) Actor United States

37 quotes in 188 categories

Elsie de Wolfe was an actor from the United States, best known for The house in good taste.

Quick Facts About Elsie de Wolfe

Born: December 20, 1865
Died: July 12, 1950
Nationality: United States
Profession: Actor
Notable works: The house in good taste
Spouse: Charles Mendl

About Elsie de Wolfe

Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl was an American actress who became a prominent interior designer and author. Born in New York City, de Wolfe was acutely sensitive to her surroundings from her earliest years and became one of the first female interior decorators, replacing dark and ornate Victorian decor with lighter, simpler styles and uncluttered room layouts.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Elsie de Wolfe

You will express yourself in your house whether you want to or not.

Express yourself

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I was not ugly. I might never be anything for men to lose their heads about, but I need never again be…

Attractive

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don't make each room a different color in a small apartment or you'll make yourself nervous.

Apartment

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My business is to preach to you the beauty of suitability.

Beauty

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There never has been a house so bad that it couldn't be made over into something worthwhile.

Has beens

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I was born with the courage to live. Only those are unwise who have never dared to be fools.

Born

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You can't take it with you. There are no pockets in a shroud.

Design

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[At first sight of the Acropolis:] It's beige! My color!

Acropolis

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I am going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life.

Beauty

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What is the goal? A house that is like the life that goes with it, a house that gives us beauty as…

Beauty

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I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d'art and giving advice regarding the decoration of…

Advice

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It is not chic to be too chic.

Chic

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When one begins to think of oneself as growing old, one is already old.

Age

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Good dressing is largely a question of detail and accessories.

Accessories

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It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much…

Forever

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A house should be a synthesis of comfort, practicality, and tradition.

Comfort

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Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you.

Gracious

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No, I don't take soup. You can't build a meal on a lake.

Cooking

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I opened the doors and windows of America, and let the air and sunshine in.

Air

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Never, under any circumstance, do I touch soup, as I do not believe in building a meal on a lake.

Believe

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It does not matter whether one paints a picture, writes a poem, or carves a statue - simplicity is the mark of…

Doe

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When I am no longer being copied, I shall know that I am a back number. ... the fear of being copied…

Characteristics

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We cannot do better than to accept the standards of other times, and to adapt them to our uses.

Accepting

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I know of nothing more significant than the awakening of men and women throughout our country to the desire to improve their…

Affair

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Simplicity, suitability and proportion.

Design

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Elsie de Wolfe by topic

Interior design (9) Design (8)