Margot Asquith Quotes

Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith , known as Margot Asquith, was a British socialite, author, and wit. She was married to H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1894 until his death in 1928. Wikipedia  

✵ 2. February 1864 – 28. July 1945
Margot Asquith photo
Margot Asquith: 12 quotes0 likes

Famous Margot Asquith Quotes

“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.”

Margot Asquith

In conversation with James Agate, September 30, 1941; reported by Agate in his Ego 5 (London: Harrap, 1942) p. 136.
Sometimes also attributed to John Maynard Keynes.

“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.”

Margot Asquith

The Autobiography of Margot Asquith (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963) p. 291. (1922)
Of the crowds outside 10 Downing Street on August 3, 1914.

“Kitchener, a great man or a great poster?”

Margot Asquith

Attributed to Margot Asquith, as in Sir Philip Magnus, Kitchener: Portrait of an Imperialist (1938, ch. xiv): "Mrs. Asquith remarked indiscreetly that if Kitchener was not a great man, he was, at least, a great poster." Asquith herself, however, wrote in More Memories (London: Cassel, 1933, p. 135) that the remark was made by her daughter, Elizabeth Bibesco.
Misattributed

“You can do something with talent, but nothing with genius….”

Margot Asquith

Quoted in Jack Fishman's My Darling Clementine, the biography of Winston Churchill's wife. (p. 131).

“The t is silent, as in Harlow.”

Margot Asquith

Quoted in T. S. Matthews Great Tom (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), ch. 7.
Correcting Jean Harlow's pronunciation of Margot. It is sometimes said to have been the actress Margot Grahame who delivered this rebuke.
Variant: Margo. The 'T' is silent as in Harlow.

Margot Asquith Quotes

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

Margot Asquith

Quoted by her step-daughter Violet in The Listener, June 11, 1953.
Of Lloyd George.

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

Margot Asquith

Quoted by her step-daughter Violet in The Listener, June 11, 1953.
Of F. E. Smith.

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

Margot Asquith

Quoted by Mark Bonham Carter in his Introduction to the 1962 edition of The Autobiography of Margot Asquith (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1962) p. xxxv.

“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.”

Margot Asquith

The Autobiography of Margot Asquith (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963) p. 63. (1920).

“She tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake.”

Margot Asquith

Quoted by her step-daughter Violet in The Listener, June 11, 1953.
Of Lady Desborough.

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

Margot Asquith

Dorothy Parker, "Re-enter Margot Asquith - A Masterpiece from the French," The New Yorker, October 22, 1927.

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