Barbara Walters Quotes

21 Sourced Quotes

Large cocktail parties are an infamous technique for ridding yourself of social obligations to people you usually don't know well or like much, which is such an unpromising beginning that I've rarely known one that recovered and turned into a great party.

Barbara Walters
I find very often people like to confront rumors. It depends on how much they trust you. And you have to have a line between what is tasteful and what isn't.

Barbara Walters
It's a fact that it is much more comfortable to be in the position of the person who has been offended than to be the unfortunate cause of it.

Barbara Walters
We thought that he was going to be — I shouldn't say this at Christmastime — but the next messiah.

Barbara Walters
Celebrities used to be found in clusters, like oysters — and with much the same defensive mechanisms.

Barbara Walters
Most of us have trouble juggling. The woman who says that she doesn't is someone whom I admire but have never met.

Barbara Walters
The origin of a modern party is anthropological: humans meet and share food to lower hostility between them and indicate friendship.

Barbara Walters
The way you dress is the billboard that tells perceptive people how you feel about yourself.

Barbara Walters
Politics... is the hottest, most dangerous subject in the land. It's not only a conversation-wrecker, it's a friendship-wrecker, a family-wrecker, a job-wrecker, a future-wrecker.

Barbara Walters
Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna, or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out.

Barbara Walters
Homogeneity is much to be admired — in milk, for instance — but not for parties.

Barbara Walters
Most old people... are disheartened to be living in the ailing house of their bodies, to be limited physically and economically, to feel an encumbrance to others — guests who didn't have the good manners to leave when the party was over.

Barbara Walters
Small children do not belong at an adult party, and especially should not be used like trained midgets to help serve martinis.

Barbara Walters
People sinking into self-pity and depression are dreary, but they can't get out of it by themselves. So every now and then, just sit there and listen, and listen, and listen. You're paying your membership dues in the human race.

Barbara Walters
[Grandmother Lillian Walters] proclaimed herself a virgin, to which Shirley naturally responded, 'How could you be, Grandma? You have seven children.' But my grandmother had the last word. 'I know,' she said. 'But I never participated.'

Barbara Walters
Now here I was, half Jane Wyman, half Shirley Temple, and people began to stop me in the street and say, 'Don't worry, Barbara, it's all right, you won't lose your job.' It was really very touching.

Barbara Walters
I think most working relationships could benefit by excluding personal matters from the office chatter.

Barbara Walters
A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence and refinement so they think they will impress others with their command of obscure words.

Barbara Walters
The aging process seems to strike first at the mechanism which warns that we have been talking too much and the listener is growing restless. The signal isn't perfect at any age — drink, for instance, throws it right out of kilter — but it is almost non-existent in old people.

Barbara Walters
Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children as enchanting as they do.

Barbara Walters
When your child is in trouble, the first thing you do is blame yourself.

Barbara Walters