Lillian Hellman Quotes

Quotes about:

• Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?

  Lillian Hellman

  Women, Diversity, People

  Lillian Hellman (1976). “Scoundrel time”

  65 Copy quote

• People change and forget to tell each other.

  Lillian Hellman

  Relationship, Change, Marriage

  Lillian Hellman (1960). “Toys in the Attic: A Drama in Three Acts”, Dramatist's Play Service

  66 Copy quote

• Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

  Lillian Hellman

  Love, Wisdom, Truth

  The Little Foxes (1939) act 1

  13 Copy quote

• Nobody knows what you want except you, and no one will be as sorry as you if you don't get it.

  Lillian Hellman

  Sorry, Want, Nobody Knows

  64 Copy quote

• Things start out as hopes and end up as habits.

  Lillian Hellman

  Habit, Ends

  73 Copy quote

• It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or time or fortune, but just yourself that kept things from you.

  Lillian Hellman

  Inspirational, Time, Mistake

  Lillian Hellman, Jackson R. Bryer (1986). “Conversations with Lillian Hellman”, p.271, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  62 Copy quote

• It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.

  Lillian Hellman

  Confidence, Littles, Matter

  72 Copy quote

• There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. And other people who stand around and watch them eat.

  Lillian Hellman

  People, Watches, Earth

  Lillian Hellman (1969). “The Little Foxes: Play in Three Acts”

  67 Copy quote

• The only good thing about [aging] is you're not dead.

  Lillian Hellman

  Aging, Good Things

  38 Copy quote

• I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak.

  Lillian Hellman

  Women, Memorable, People

  "Untamed Tongues : Wild Words from Wild Women". Book by Autumn Stephens (p. 132), 1993.

  51 Copy quote

• You are what you are. It is my opinion that trouble in the world comes from people who do not know what they are, and pretend to be something they're not.

  Lillian Hellman

  People, World, Opinion

  Lillian Hellman (1943). “The North Star: A Motion Picture about Some Russian People”

  31 Copy quote

• You do too much. Go and do nothing for a while. Nothing.

  Lillian Hellman

  Too Much

  Lillian Hellman (1988). “Toys in the Attic”, p.54, Dramatists Play Service Inc

  18 Copy quote

• For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt.

  Lillian Hellman

  Life, Freedom, Men

  Lillian Hellman (1944). “Watch on the Rhine: Acting Ed. Play in Three Acts”

  41 Copy quote

• Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did.

  Lillian Hellman

  Time, Thinking, Courses

  "An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir". Book by Lillian Hellman, 1969.

  9 Copy quote

• Truth made you a traitor as it often does in a time of scoundrels.

  Lillian Hellman

  Truth, Honesty, Doe

  Scoundrel Time (1976)

  26 Copy quote

• You can't recover from what you do not understand.

  Lillian Hellman

  Understanding

  23 Copy quote

• Nowadays people write English as if a rat were caught in the typewriter and they were trying to hit the keys which wouldn't disturb it.

  Lillian Hellman

  Writing, Keys, Typewriters

  Lillian Hellman (1971). “The collected plays”, Little Brown and Company

  15 Copy quote

• I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group.

  Lillian Hellman

  Fashion, Cutting, Long Ago

  Letter to John S. Wood, 19 May 1952.

  46 Copy quote

• Don't you think people often say other people are tough when they do not know how to cheat them?

  Lillian Hellman

  Thinking, People, Perception

  Lillian Hellman (1979). “Six Plays”, Vintage

  32 Copy quote

• Lonely people, in talking to each other can make each other lonelier.

  Lillian Hellman

  Lonely, Loneliness, Being Alone

  Lillian Hellman (1952). “The Autumn Garden: Play in Three Acts”, p.35, Dramatists Play Service Inc

  18 Copy quote

• I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

  Lillian Hellman

  Fashion, Peace, Integrity

  Letter to John S. Wood, 19 May 1952.

  47 Copy quote

• Rebels seldom make good revolutionaries, because organized action, even union with other people, is not possible for them.

  Lillian Hellman

  People, Rebel, Unions

  24 Copy quote

• No one can argue any longer about the rights of women. It's like arguing about earthquakes.

  Lillian Hellman

  Equality, Earthquakes, Rights

  15 Copy quote

• We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It is considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.

  Lillian Hellman

  Mistake, Past, Thinking

  Lillian Hellman (1976). “Scoundrel time”

  31 Copy quote

• Nobody knows what you want except you. And nobody will be as sorry as you if you don't get it. Wanting some other way to live is proof enough of deserving it. Having it is hard work, but not having it is sheer hell.

  Lillian Hellman

  Sorry, Hard Work, Deserving It

  19 Copy quote

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