Lady Grantham's words of wisdom

Dame Maggie Smith has won a Emmy for her portrayal of the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. We can't get enough of her one-liners. Here are some of the best...

By Katy Pearson

"At my age one must ration one's excitment"

"Of course it would happen to a foreigner. No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house."

"Don't be defeatist dear, it's terribly middle class."

"What's a 'weekend?'"

"Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an H.G. Wells novel."

"I'm a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose."

"If she won't say yes when he might be poor, he won't want her when he will be rich."

"It always happens when you give these little people power, it goes to their heads like strong drink."

"She's so slight a real necklace would flatten her."

"You see, sometimes we must let the blow fall by degrees. Give him time to find the strength to face it."

Lady Mary Crawley: "Sybil is entitled to her opinions."

Dowager Countess of Grantham: "No. She isn't until she is married, then her husband will tell her what her opinions are."

"We are allies, which can be a good deal more effective [than friends]."

Sir Richard Carlisle: "I'm leaving the morning Lady Grantham, I doubt we'll meet again."

Dowager Countess of Grantham: "Do you promise?"

"One way or another, everyone goes down the aisle with half the story hidden."

Lady Sybil Crawley: "No one ever learned anything from a governess except for French, and how to curtsy."

Dowager Countess of Grantham: "What more do you need?"

"Oh, dear, such a glare. I feel as if I were on stage at the Gaiety."

Daily tip from the lady archive

"It is not always she who appears most kindly in her interest who is the safe sharer of sacred (maybe sorrowful) secrets! Charming manners do not always connote sincerity of heart!”

The Lady. In Confidence. 4th April, 1918

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Lady Grantham's words of wisdom

Dame Maggie Smith has won a Emmy for her portrayal of the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. We can't get enough of her one-liners. Here are some of the best...