Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Noel Coward, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Noel Coward quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 131 Noel Coward quotes for you to read and share.
People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it. -- Noel Coward
I can take any amount of criticism, as long as it is unqualified praise. -- Noel Coward
Work is much more fun than fun. -- Noel Coward
My philosophy is as simple as ever - smoking, drinking, moderate sexual intercourse on a diminishing scale, reading and writing (not arithmetic). I have a selfish absorption in the well-being and achievement of Noel Coward. -- Noel Coward
Good heavens, television is something you appear on; you don't watch. -- Noel Coward
To hell with God damned "L'Amour." It always causes far more trouble than it is worth. Don't run after it. Don't court it. Keep it waiting off stage until you're good and ready for it and even then treat it with the suspicious disdain that it deserves ... -- Noel Coward
But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home? -- Noel Coward
Strange how potent cheap music is. -- Noel Coward
Goodnight my darlings, I'll see you tomorrow. -- Noel Coward
[Garry Essendine]: That is no prostitute, but the wife of one of my best friends! -- Noel Coward
I love criticism just so long as it's unqualified praise. -- Noel Coward
CHRISTMAS is at our throats again. -- Noel Coward
Many years ago I remember a famous actress explaining to me with perfect seriousness that before making an entrance she always stood aside to allow God to go on first. I can also remember that on that particular occasion He gave a singularly uninspired performance. -- Noel Coward
Marriage is the aftermath of love. -- Noel Coward
I have always been very fond of them (drama critics) ... I think it is so frightfully clever of them to go night after night to the theatre and know so little about it. -- Noel Coward
People have died from hiccups, you know. -- Noel Coward
Let's drink to the spirit of gallantry and courage that made a strange Heaven out of unbelievable Hell, and let's drink to the hope that one day this country of ours, which we love so much, will find dignity and greatness and peace again. -- Noel Coward
I'm an enormously talented man, and there's no use pretending that I'm not.. -- Noel Coward
I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants often consult me. -- Noel Coward
It's never too early for a cocktail. -- Noel Coward
The higher the building the lower the morals. -- Noel Coward
A bloody good thing, but too late. -- Noel Coward
I like long walks, especialy when they are taken by people who annoy me. -- Noel Coward
Criticism and Bolshevism have one thing in common. They both seek to pull down that which they could never build. -- Noel Coward
If by any chance a playwright wishes to express a political opinion or a moral opinion or a philosophy, he must be a good enough craftsman to do it with so much spice of entertainment in it that the public get the message without being aware of it. -- Noel Coward
You kissed me because you were awfully nice and I was awfully nice and we both liked kissing very much. It was inevitable. -- Noel Coward
I want a horse and plough, Chickens too, Just one cow, With a wistful moo. -- Noel Coward
Work hard, do the best you can, don't ever lose faith in yourself and take no notice of what other people say about you. -- Noel Coward
Dear 338171 (May I call you 338?) -- Noel Coward
Entering an white tie and tails party wearing an ordinary suit, he announced,Please, I don't want anyone to apologize for over dressing. -- Noel Coward
It's like this, dear boy, the one in front is blind and the kind one behind is pushing him. -- Noel Coward
There are dark times just around the corner. There are dark clouds travelling through the sky. And it's no good whining about a silver lining. For we know from experience they won't roll by. -- Noel Coward
Couldn't you see that all my flippancy was only a mask, hiding my real emotions
crushing them down desperately! -- Noel Coward
Television is for appearing on, not looking at. -- Noel Coward
If you must have motivation, think of your paycheck on Friday. -- Noel Coward
Your motivation is your pay packet on Friday. Now get on with it. -- Noel Coward
Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs. -- Noel Coward
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. -- Noel Coward
What I adore is supreme professionalism. I'm bored by writers who can write only when it's raining. -- Noel Coward
That strange feeling we had in the war. Have you found anything in your lives since to equal it in strength? A sort of splendid carelessness it was, holding us together. -- Noel Coward
Madame Bovary is the sexiest book imaginable. The woman's virtually a nyphomaniac but you won't find a vulgar word in the entire thing. -- Noel Coward
It's no use to go and take courses in playwriting any more than it's much use taking courses in acting. Better play to a bad matinee in Hull - it will teach you much more than a year of careful instruction. Come to think of it, I never did play to a good matinee in Hull ... -- Noel Coward
I can't sing, but I know how to, which is quite different. -- Noel Coward
All that technical expertise isn't worth a damn if you don't get the best out of people, though ... These were leaders who saw strength in ordinary people and showed them how to break tyranny. -- Noel Coward
You always ought to have tom cats arranged, you know - it makes 'em more companionable. -- Noel Coward
I don't much care for Hollywood, I'd rather have a nice cup of cocoa. -- Noel Coward
Acting is not a state of being ... but a state of appearing to be. You can't be eight times a week without going stark staring mad. You've got to be in control. -- Noel Coward
Fifty-four years of love and tenderness and crossness and devotion and unswerving loyalty. Without her I could have achieved a quarter of what I have achieved, not only in terms of success and career, but in terms of personal happiness. -- Noel Coward
Passion in a dromedary doesn't go so deep; a camel when it's mating never sobs itself to sleep. -- Noel Coward
I don't know what London's coming to - the higher the buildings the lower the morals. -- Noel Coward
I'll go through life either first class or third, but never in second. -- Noel Coward
Comedies of manners swiftly become obsolete when there are no longer any manners. -- Noel Coward
How about slipping out of those wet things and into a dry Martini? -- Noel Coward
The theatre should be treated with respect. The theatre is a wonderful place, a house of strange enchantment, a temple of illusion. What it most emphatically is not and never will be is a scruffy, ill-lit, fumed-oak drill hall serving as a temporary soap box for political propaganda. -- Noel Coward
Am reading more of Oscar Wilde. What a tiresome, affected sod. -- Noel Coward
Wouldn't it be dreadful to live in a country where they didn't have tea? -- Noel Coward
It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. -- Noel Coward
Never mind, dear, we're all made the same, though some more than others. -- Noel Coward
How was your flight? Well, aeronautically it was a great success. Socially, it left quite a bit to be desired. -- Noel Coward
She stopped the show - but then the show wasn't traveling very fast. -- Noel Coward
How foolish to think that one can ever slam the door in the face of age. Much wiser to be polite and gracious and ask him to lunch in advance. -- Noel Coward
You'll never decide what you want until you've decided who you are. -- Noel Coward
Star quality: I don't know what it is, but I've got it. -- Noel Coward
I don't believe in astrology. The only stars I can blame for my failures are those that walk about the stage. -- Noel Coward
There isn't a particle of you that I don't know, remember, and want. -- Noel Coward
You ask my advice about acting? Speak clearly, don't bump into the furniture and if you must have motivation, think of your pay packet on Friday. -- Noel Coward
Just say the lines and don't trip over the furniture. -- Noel Coward
I don't think pornography is harmful, but it is terribly, terribly boring. -- Noel Coward
Success is far more perilous than failure, isn't it? You've got to be doubly strong and watchful and wary. -- Noel Coward
Though the fact that they have to be rebuilt And frequently mortgaged to the hilt Is inclined to take the gilt Off the gingerbread, And certainly damps the fun Of the eldest son. -- Noel Coward
AMANDA: I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. -- Noel Coward
Someday I suspect, when Jesus has definitely got me for a sunbeam, my works may be adequately assessed. -- Noel Coward
The pleasures that once were heaven look silly at sixty-seven. -- Noel Coward
Grab it while you can - grab every scrap of happiness while you can -- Noel Coward
A.E. Matthews ambled through This Was a Man like a charming retriever who has buried a bone and can't quite remember where. -- Noel Coward
Never trust a man with short legs. His brains are too near his bottom. -- Noel Coward
It's no good pacing up and down. It won't make the plane arrive any faster. Just sit down and accept that we're delayed. You're just making a fool of yourself. -- Noel Coward
Bed is the perfect climate. -- Noel Coward
A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy. -- Noel Coward
An echo from the past when, innocent
We looked upon the present with delight
And doubted not the future would be kinder
And never knew the loneliness of night. -- Noel Coward
Hollywood is a place where some people lie on the beach and look up at the stars, whereas other people lie on the stars and look down at the beach. -- Noel Coward
You will know you're old when you cease to be amazed. -- Noel Coward
Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power? -- Noel Coward
To take a gloomy view of life is not part of my philosophy; to laugh at the idiocies of my fellow creatures is. However, at this particular moment I cannot find so much to laugh at as I would like. -- Noel Coward
It's a sad reflection on society how many people are shocked by honesty ... and how few by dishonesty. -- Noel Coward
I never cared who scored the goal, or which side won the silver cup. I never learned to bat or bowl; but I heard the curtain going up. -- Noel Coward
Success took me to her bosom like a maternal boa constrictor. -- Noel Coward
I have always paid income tax. I object only when it reaches a stage when I am threatened with having nothing left for my old age - which is due to start next Tuesday or Wednesday. -- Noel Coward
There's always something fishy about the French. -- Noel Coward
Christopher Marlowe or Francis Bacon The author of Lear remains unshaken Willie Herbert or Mary Fitton What does it matter? The Sonnets were written. -- Noel Coward
He's completely unspoiled by failure. -- Noel Coward
Labour leaders lead us all, though we know they bleed us all. Cheer our new Decline and Fall, Gibbon might have dreamed it all. -- Noel Coward
I'll go and see anything so long as it amuses me, or moves me. If it doesn't do either I want to go home. -- Noel Coward
Conceit is an outward manifestation of inferiority. -- Noel Coward
The air is like a draught of wine.
The undertaker cleans his sign,
The Hull express goes off the line,
When it's raspberry time in Runcorn. -- Noel Coward
I write at high speed because boredom is bad for my health. -- Noel Coward
I've sometimes thought of marrying - and then I've thought again. -- Noel Coward
He must have been an incredibly good shot. -- Noel Coward
We have no reliable guarantee that the afterlife will be any less exasperating than this one, have we? -- Noel Coward
It's such a surprise for the Eastern eyes to see,
That though the English are effete
They're quite impervious to heat. -- Noel Coward
For gin, in cruel sober truth, supplies the fuel for flaming youth. -- Noel Coward
If he (Peter O'Toole) had been any prettier it would have been Florence of Arabia. -- Noel Coward
Squash - that's not exercise, it's flagellation. -- Noel Coward
Time is the reef upon which all our mystic ships are wrecked. -- Noel Coward
Work is more fun than fun. -- Noel Coward
I will accept anything in the theatre ... provided it amuses or moves me. But if it does neither, I want to go home. -- Noel Coward
As one gets older, one discovers everything is going to be exactly the same with different hats on. -- Noel Coward
She had much in common with Hitler, only no mustache. -- Noel Coward
Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn't everyone? -- Noel Coward
Exercise is the most awful illusion. The secret is a lot of aspirin and marrons glaces. -- Noel Coward
My body has certainly wandered a good deal, but I have an uneasy suspicion that my mind has not wandered enough. -- Noel Coward
It'll never get well if you pick it. -- Noel Coward
Consider the public. Never fear it nor despise it. Coax it, charm it, interest it, stimulate it, shock it now and then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, but above all never, never, never bore the living hell out of it. -- Noel Coward
Everybody was up to something, especially, of course, those who were up to nothing. -- Noel Coward
It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but my own. -- Noel Coward
Wit is like caviar - it should be served in small portions and not spread about like marmalade. -- Noel Coward
Wit ought to be a glorious treat, like caviar. Never spread it about like marmalade. -- Noel Coward
I'm over-educated in the things I shouldn't have known at all. -- Noel Coward
My life really has been one long extravaganza. -- Noel Coward
Trust your instincts. If you have no instincts, trust your impulses. -- Noel Coward
Mona Lisa looks as if she has just been sick, or is about to be. -- Noel Coward
It's a pity you didn't have a little more brandy. It might have made you more agreeable! -- Noel Coward
I see her as one great stampede of lips directed at the nearest derriere. -- Noel Coward
Having to read footnotes resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love. -- Noel Coward
Sunburn is very becoming - but only when it is even - one must be careful not to look like a mixed grill. -- Noel Coward
She's a self-conscious vampire ... and she goes about using sex as a sort of shrimping net. -- Noel Coward
Las Vegas:
It was not cafe society, it was Nescafe society. -- Noel Coward
I'm not a heavy drinker, I can sometimes go for hours without touching a drop. -- Noel Coward
Familiarity breeds contempt, but without a little familiarity it's impossible to breed anything. -- Noel Coward
Extraordinary how potent cheap music is. -- Noel Coward
Television is for appearing on - not for looking at. -- Noel Coward