Top 100 Betty White Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “Well, I mean, if a joke or humor is bawdy, it’s got to be funny enough to warrant it. You can’t just have it bawdy or dirty just for the sake of being that – it’s got to be funny.”

— Betty White

52. “My mother and dad were big animal lovers, too. I just don’t know how I would have lived without animals around me. I’m fascinated by them – both domestic pets and the wild community. They just are the most interesting things in the world to me, and it’s made such a difference in my lifetime.”

— Betty White

53. “Those that just talk are also the ones that say, ‘Why don’t they do this?’ and ‘Why don’t they do that?’ Well, they’re they. We’re all they, and we can all do a little something.”

— Betty White

54. “When I’m around animals, I don’t pay attention to people.”

— Betty White

55. “However, if one is lucky enough to be blessed with good health, growing older shouldn’t be something to complain about. It’s not a surprise, we knew it was coming – make the most of it. So you may not be as fast on your feet, and the image in your mirror may be a little disappointing, but if you are still functioning and not in pain, gratitude should be the name of the game.”

— Betty White

56. “I’m wearing a put-together from a little shop that I favor called the back of my closet.”

— Betty White

57. “That’s when you have to remember that image in the mirror and not let success get to you. It is important that you not believe your own publicity. Be grateful for whatever praise you receive, but take it with a grain of salt.”

— Betty White

58. “Humor is like music. It’s a rhythm, and you just kind of get the rhythm of it, and you have to know not to let the beat go too long, but to leave a beat in there for it to gel.”

— Betty White

59. “I like double entendre because then the people who get it enjoy it, and the people who don’t get it don’t know about it.”

— Betty White

60. “Retirement is not a dirty word, I am just enjoying what I am doing. If they want me to retire, then stop asking me. Ask and I will say yes unless it is something I really don’t like.”

— Betty White

61. “Of course, nobody’s tearing my door down. If you’re successful you’re going to intimidate and scare off the people you’d like to spend time with. They’re not going to approach you. And the ones who do are often there because you are a celebrity.”

— Betty White

62. “I had to make a major decision with myself because I just don’t think you can do both: try to have a baby career and raise it and have a baby baby and raise it. And to try to do justice to either one. It was a very conscious decision on my part not to have children – which I have never regretted.”

— Betty White

63. “I think a lot of people like hidden-camera shows where they think they’re spying on somebody who doesn’t know they’re looking at them. And nobody takes it seriously – you either enjoy it and get a laugh out of the reactions or not.”

— Betty White

64. “I’m the luckiest broad on two feet, I’ll tell you that. They say once a woman passes 40 she doesn’t get any good parts, so I’m blessed.”

— Betty White

65. “Now that I’m 91, as opposed to being 90, I’m much wiser. I’m much more aware and I’m much sexier.”

— Betty White

66. “The bottom line is, I’m blessed with good health. On top of that, I don’t go around thinking ‘Oh, I’m 90, I better do this or I better do that.’ I’m just Betty. I’m the same Betty that I’ve always been. Take it or leave it.”

— Betty White

67. “I enjoy being busy, I really do. Remember, I’m the stub end of the railroad. I have no family, so I’m not taking busy time away from people that I should be spending it with. So I’m just relaxing and enjoying it.”

— Betty White

68. “I don’t seem to require a lot of sleep. I just – if I get four, five good hours, I’m fine. But sleeping is sort of dull. There’s a lot of other good stuff that you can do without just lying down and closing your eyes.”

— Betty White

69. “I’m just happy as a lark having a good health. People say are you thinking about retiring, I don’t have time to think about retiring.”

— Betty White

70. “I still like to see that a man opens the door. I like those touches of chivalry that are fast disappearing. If I sound old-fashioned, it’s because I’m as old as I am! But it’s just polite.”

— Betty White

71. “I’m blessed with learning easily. I’ve always had a good thing about memorizing quickly, and I just leave the script kind of open somewhere, and as I walk by I’ll just take a swipe at it and then go on about my business and pretty soon it sticks.”

— Betty White

72. “I always tape my Christmas show in advance. That way I can spend the season of joy and goodwill with my only sister in Florida. She’s kinda a creep but she’s got a pool.”

— Betty White

73. “Being blessed with good health gives you the strength and loving what you do and – is a privilege that keeps you going. So I’m just happy as a lark.”

— Betty White

74. “Retirement is not in my vocabulary.”

— Betty White

75. “I stayed in show business to pay for my animal business.”

— Betty White

76. “If you call me a comedian I will be very grateful. I will thank you profoundly. No, I love doing comedy. It’s fun once in a while to do a serious part but I really enjoy doing comedy because I love to laugh.”

— Betty White

77. “I go out to the kitchen to feed the dog, but that’s about as much cooking as I do.”

— Betty White

78. “The thing that I love about television there are no more than two or three people watching you at a time. If there are more than two or three people in a room they’re talking to each other, they’re not listening to you.”

— Betty White

79. “We laugh a lot. That’s for sure. Sure beats the alternative, doesn’t it?”

— Betty White

80. “Gravity has taken over me from time to time. But otherwise than that, I’m blessed with good health. That’s the bottom line.”

— Betty White

81. “I’ve always had a bawdy sense of humor. My father was a traveling salesman and he would bring jokes home. He would say, “Honey, you can take this one to school, but you can’t take that one to school.””

— Betty White

82. “A lady likes to be complimented on her looks, her eyes, her figure. But the personality comments are much appreciated.”

— Betty White

83. “I love straight-face comedy or relatively subtle comedy. And then I turn around and I find myself doing very broad comedy but it’s all fun and you have to keep your sense of humor and not take yourself seriously.”

— Betty White

84. “When you start explaining why something’s funny or finding a formula for it I think it loses some of its funniness.”

— Betty White

85. “The film industry gives you the opportunity to meet interesting people.”

— Betty White

86. “I’m so compulsive about stuff, I know if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would have been my whole focus. But I didn’t choose to have children because I’m focused on my career. And I just don’t think, as compulsive as I am, that I could manage both.”

— Betty White

87. “Having a live audience makes a world of difference to the acting. It keeps your timing sharp. When something doesn’t work, the actor can sense the reaction from the audience and quickly move on.”

— Betty White

88. “Why retire from something if you’re loving it so much and enjoying it so much, and you’re blessed with another group of people to work with like the gang on ‘Hot in Cleveland?’ Why would I think of retiring? What would I do with myself?”

— Betty White

89. “If you get into a Broadway show and it doesn’t work, you’re a failure. And if it does work, you may be stuck for who knows how long. It just doesn’t sound great to me!”

— Betty White

90. “We actors can’t take the credit. We love to try to claim the credit.”

— Betty White

91. “Long ago, I did a five-and-a-half-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week talk show for four years, early on, in Los Angeles – local show. And when you are on that many hours with no script, you know, you get very comfortable, maybe overly comfortable with that small audience.”

— Betty White

92. “Wilderness is harder and harder to find these days on this beautiful planet, and we’re abusing our planet to the point of almost no return.”

— Betty White

93. “I don’t know where I learned elephants like their tongues slapped. Whatever turns you on.”

— Betty White

94. “When I started in television, it was brand new. It was the miracle over in the corner of your room. Now the audience has seen every story line. People have heard every joke. They can predict the plot almost before a show starts. That’s a hard, sophisticated audience to reach.”

— Betty White

95. “I think older women still have a full life. Maybe the writers don’t address it these days, but it doesn’t change the fact.”

— Betty White

96. “I’m in the middle of my sixth book, which is about animals at the Los Angeles Zoo.”

— Betty White

97. “Avoid tweeting any photos of your private parts.”

— Betty White

98. “When I pontificate, it sounds so, you know, Oh, well, she’s preaching. I’m not preaching, but I think maybe I learned it from my animal friends. Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself. I think that keeps you feeling young. I really do.”

— Betty White

99. “The writers are the stars of every really successful sitcom.”

— Betty White

100. “I think the best kind of comedy is the least self conscious. I think if you just sort of let the comedy happen without the elbow nudge, did you get it, did you get it. I love straight face comedy or subtle – relatively subtle comedy.”

— Betty White