Margaret Cavendish Quotes

I saw such personal wealth there that were I to describe it, the people of Persia would never believe it. I could discover no end or limit to their wealth, and I never saw such ease and comfort anywhere

Too much of a good thing is wonderful.

Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three - and paradise is when you have none.

Decadence is wonderful.

I'm a simple man. All I want is enough sleep for two normal men, enough whiskey for three, and enough women for four.

I always have the best of everything.

For me, the most luxurious place is somewhere that allows you to feel emotions and pleasures.

Luxury is anything you don't need, right? I mean, you need food, water, clothing, shelter... but good wine, good food, beautiful interiors, nice clothes; those aren't necessities, they are luxuries - it's all luxury.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

It is hardly possible to exaggerate the power, as an incentive to action, which the love of luxury exercises over the majority of people. The desire for Luxury is almost universal and is constantly expanding. Things that were formerly considered Luxuries are now held to be Necessaries, and this is as it should be. The world is approaching an era when not the pressure of Necessity but the lure of Luxury must be depended upon to keep society moving onward and upward. Let us avoid Puritanical denunciation of Luxury; the Puritans were dead wrong; their drab lives led to stagnation. All of the great periods of history have been periods characterized by Luxury, by art and by the delight in beauty and splendor.

For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?

Dry happiness is like dry bread. We eat, but we do not dine. I wish for the superfluous, for the useless, for the extravagant, for the too much, for that which is not good for anything.

Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman - or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.

America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.

Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.

For me, life is not about gold taps and marble all over the place.

Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant source of surprise to people of moderate means to observe how little a big fortune contributes to Beauty.

It's still my happiest time when I'm eating.

A car to pick me up every day, a chair with my name on it, everybody being very polite... what can you do except sit back and watch it all, try to take it all in?

I am one of those for whom superfluity is a necessity.

A lot of things we don't have to have, but they're enjoyable.

Once we are fed, heated, housed and healthy, our extra consumption inevitably has an element of luxury about it. And once luxury enters the scene, the practicalities are in trouble, as women who wear expensive stiletto heels can testify.

Why have one chandelier when you can have two?

I've got so much money it's ridiculous.

They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar.