36 Inspiring Bette Davis Quotes (Free List)

Bette Davis quotes are thought-provoking, memorable and inspiring. From views on society and politics to thoughts on love and life, Bette Davis has a lot to say. In this list we present the 36 best Bette Davis quotes, in no particular order. Let yourself get inspired!

(And check out our page with Bette Davis quotes per category if you only want to read quotes from a certain category, such as funny, life, love, politics, and more).

Bette Davis quotes

Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end in marriage. I’m afraid it did.

— Bette Davis

When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.

— Bette Davis

The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.

— Bette Davis

If you’ve never been hated by your child, you’ve never been a parent.

— Bette Davis

Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child.He needs guidance.If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child. A parent must also not be afraid to hang himself. If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.

— Bette Davis

If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.

— Bette Davis

I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.

— Bette Davis

Old age ain’t no place for sissies.

— Bette Davis

Basically, I believe the world is a jungle, and if it’s not a bit of a jungle in the home, a child cannot possibly be fit to enter the outside world.

— Bette Davis

The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone’s concern and like vampires they suck our life’s blood.

— Bette Davis, The Lonely Life

There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne.

— Bette Davis

In this business, until you’re known as a monster, you’re not a star

— Bette Davis

The real actor – like any real artistj- has a direct line to the collective heart.

— Bette Davis

My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today I knew it then as purpose.

— Bette Davis

A sure way to lose happiness I found is to want it at the expense of everything else.

— Bette Davis

To fulfill a dream to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor to be given the chance to create is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

— Bette Davis

Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child. He needs guidance. If there is love there is no such thing as being too tough with a child.

— Bette Davis

To look back is to relax one’s vigil.

— Bette Davis

The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone’s concern and like vampires they suck our life’s blood.

— Bette Davis

Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

— Bette Davis

Old age is no place for sissies.

— Bette Davis

I have always been driven by some distant music-a battle hymn no doubt-for I have been at war from the beginning. I’ve never looked back before. I’ve never had the time and it has always seemed so dangerous.

— Bette Davis

I do not regret one professional enemy I have made. Any actor who doesn’t dare to make an enemy should get out of the business.

— Bette Davis

In this business, until you’re known as a monster you’re not a star.

— Bette Davis

Oh, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We’ve already got the stars.

— Bette Davis

This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

— Bette Davis

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

— Bette Davis

I work to stay alive.

— Bette Davis

I was never very interested in boys – and there were plenty of them – vying with one another to see how many famous women they would get into the hay.

— Bette Davis

A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else.

— Bette Davis

Men become much more attractive when they start looking older. But it doesn’t do much for women, though we do have an advantage: make-up.

— Bette Davis

There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.

— Bette Davis

I don’t take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.

— Bette Davis

The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can’t get work in the movies.

— Bette Davis

I’d marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he’d be dead within a year.

— Bette Davis

I’d luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.

— Bette Davis

Wave after wave of love flooded the stage and washed over me, the beginning of the one great durable romance of my life.

— Bette Davis