Margot Asquith

"One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone."

"Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty."

"From the happy expression on their faces you might have supposed that they welcomed the war. I have met with men who loved stamps, and stones, and snakes, but I could not imagine any man loving war."

"Lloyd George? There is no Lloyd George. There is a marvellous brain; but if you were to shut him in a room and look through the keyhole there would be nobody there."

"He's very clever, but sometimes his brains go to his head."

"She tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake."

"He couldn't see a belt without hitting below it."

"My dear old friend King George V told me he would never have died but for that vile doctor, Lord Dawson of Penn."

"The t is silent, as in Harlow."

"You can do something with talent, but nothing with genius...."

"Kitchener, a great man or a great poster?"

"Margo. The 'T' is silent as in Harlow."

"Of a smooth society lady, she said, "she told enough white lies to ice a cake." And of a particularly hideous house she'd been to stay in, she said: "It was so uncomfortable – the chairs were covered in apples stuffed with lead. And in the hall, (talking presumably of the butler) "I was met by a stout rhinoceros carrying visiting-cards in one hand, and azaleas in the other.""

"The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories in all literature."

"... no matter where she takes off from, she brings the discourse back to Margot Asquith. Such singleness of purpose is met but infrequently."

"Through the pages of [her book] Lay Sermons walk the great. I don't say that Margot Asquith actually permits us to rub elbows with them ourselves, but she willingly shows us her own elbow, which has been, so to say, honed on the mighty."

"The lady of the house, notorious Margot, was less remarkable than unlikely to escape remark ever since her supposed début in Benson's Dodo, when she must have been "a resolute little tit", as was said of young Victoria. A woman of emphatic character and affections, she was either an ally or an embarrassment, at moments both. Ebullient, shrewd and tactless, she assisted her consort rather by energy than subtlety, for she had bouts of belief that honesty is thwarted by politeness. "Why," she must say to the Swiss Minister, "are the Swiss the plainest people in Europe?" She was clever but not profound, and said more trenchant things than good ones in her desire to reign over a world which she was always making her own. I was sorry for her when it slipped too soon for a soul irrevocably on the active list. She could not, and would not, be omitted from any call-up of ghosts."