Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and his only child with his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. Longworth led an unconventional and controversial life. Her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth III, a Republican Party leader and 38th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was shaky, and her only child, Paulina, was from her affair with Senator William Borah. Wikipedia
“If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”
As quoted in TIME (9 December 1966) - photograph of her with a pillow bearing the quotation http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2007-12-12-roosevelt_N.htm
Variants:
If you haven't anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.
If you haven't something good to say about someone sit right here by me.
“I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.”
As quoted in The Best (1974), edited by Peter Passell and Leonard Ross.
“The little man on the wedding cake.”
Describing Thomas E. Dewey, Harry S. Truman's Republican opponent, as quoted in The Washington Post (22 May 1951); also attributed to Walter Winchell.
As quoted in "The Doyenne of the Drawing Room" in The New York Times (23 August 1981) http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/books/the-doyenne-of-the-drawing-room.html?sec=&pagewanted=all.
“He looks as though he's been weaned on a pickle.”
On Calvin Coolidge, as quoted in The Washington Post (21 October 1924).
“I've always believed in the adage that the secret of eternal youth is arrested development.”
As quoted in Alice, The Life and Times of Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1979) by Howard Teichmann, p. 237.
