Betty White (January 17, 1922 – December 31, 2021) was an American actress and comedian. Her television career spanned almost seven decades and included a huge number of sitcoms, sketch comedy, game shows, and appearances.

White made the rounds to movie studios looking for work in the mid 1940s, but they turned her down because she was “not photogenic.” Instead, she worked radio jobs, and eventually landed jobs in television. She was the first woman to produce a sitcom (1950s), and twice earned the Guinness World Record for the longest TV career by a female entertainer in both 2014 and 2018. She also won seven Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award.

Below we list words of wisdom by Betty White.

“I just make it my business to get along with people so I can have fun. It’s that simple.” 

“My mother always used to say: ‘The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.'”

“Get at least 8 hours of beauty sleep. 9 if you’re ugly.” 

“I don’t know how people get so anti-something. Just mind your own business, take care of your own affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.” 

“It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.”

“Facebook just sounds like a drag, in my day seeing pictures of peoples vacations was considered a punishment” 

“You don’t luck into integrity. You work at it.” 

“I’m a teenager trapped in an old body.”

“I think everybody needs a passion. Whether it’s one passion or a hundred, that’s what keep life interesting.” 

“If one has no sense of humor, one is in trouble.”  

“Snow always inspires such awe in me. Just consider one tiny snowflake alone, so delicate, so fragile, so ethereal. And yet, let a billion of them come together through the majestic force of nature, they can screw up a whole city.”

“Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself. I think that keeps you feeling young. I really do.” 

“I really have to thank Facebook … I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite. People say ‘But Betty, Facebook is a great way to connect with old friends.’ Well at my age, if I wanna connect with old friends, I need a Ouija Board. Needless to say, we didn’t have Facebook when I was growing up. We had phonebook, but you wouldn’t waste an afternoon with it.” 

“You’re never too old for anything!”

“All creatures must learn to coexist. That’s why the brown bear and the field mouse can share their lives in harmony. Of course, they can’t mate or the mice would explode.”

“Don’t try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff. There are so many things I won’t live long enough to find out about, but I’m still curious about them. You know people who are already saying, ‘I’m going to be 30 – oh, what am I going to do?’ Well, use that decade! Use them all!”

“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.” 

“I know unless I’m true to myself I couldn’t be happy. Too much emphasis is placed today on externals and too little on character.” 

“Friendship takes time and energy if it’s going to work. You can luck into something great, but it doesn’t last if you don’t give it proper appreciation. Friendship can be so comfortable, but nurture it-don’t take it for granted.” 

“You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal.” 

“I’m a big cockeyed optimist. I try to accentuate the positive as opposed to the negative.”

“I have a two-story house and a bad memory, so I’m up and down those stairs all the time. That’s my exercise.” 

“Keep the other person’s well being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on.” 

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

“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.”

“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.” 

“I’ve always liked older men. They’re just more attractive to me. Of course, at my age there aren’t that many left!” 

“Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren’t going to get rid of me that way.”

“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.”

“I’ve enjoyed the opposite sex a lot. Always have. Always will.” 

“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.” 

“I can’t get over that at this age I don’t feel this age.  I’m not trying to be any younger.  I’m not lying about my age.  If I were lying about my age, I would say I was 89.  I’m just at one of those good times in one’s life.  I’m at one of the high spots.  I’m healthy enough to enjoy it.  I’m surrounded by friends I adore.  Isn’t that kind of the best way to sign off?” 

“Sex is pretty funny, let’s face it. And the more seriously we take ourselves, the funnier sex gets, I think.”

“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.” 

“Hot dogs and Red Vines and potato chips and French fries are my favorite foods.”

“I really don’t care with whom you sleep. I just care what kind of a decent human being you are.”

“Animal lover that I am, a cougar I am not.”

“It’s been phenomenal, but everybody keeps congratulating me on my resurgence and my big comeback. I haven’t been away, guys. I’ve been working steadily for the last 63 years.” 

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