Much like Maggie Smith’s iconic dialogue in the Harry Potter movies and Downton Abbey, her real-life quotes are words to live by, too. The Scottish actress passed away at age 89 in news that broke on Friday, September 27, 2024.
Related: Professor McGonagall’s Best Quotes Show Why We’re Going to Miss Maggie Smith So Much
“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs, per AP.
King Charles II and Queen Camilla paid tribute to Smith, who was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the equivalent of a knight, by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1990, in a statement. “As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage,” they said.
Maggie Smith quotes
“It’s true, I don’t tolerate fools…”
Image Credit: Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images “…but then they don’t tolerate me, so I am spiky,” Smith said in an interview, per AP. “Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.”
On fame later in life
Image Credit: photo: Nick Briggs / © Carnival Films for Masterpiece/PBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection “Not until Downton Abbey was I well-known or stopped in the street and asked for one of those terrible photographs,” she said.
“Beauty and terror”
Image Credit: Getty Images “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”
“The world is at least half terrible”
Image Credit: Getty Images “Life is short, and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children.”
“There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness.”
Image Credit: Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Ivy With Sir Ian McKellen. Would love to know what they’re talking about.
What would your advice be to your young self?
Image Credit: ©Sundance Selects/courtesy Everett Collection. “Honest to God, I don’t know, because most likely I wouldn’t be listening. But I would say: When in doubt, don’t,” in Tea With the Dames.
On reading reviews…
Image Credit: ©Sundance Selects/courtesy Everett Collection. Maggie Smith: You don’t read them.
Judi Dench: You certainly don’t read them. Somebody will always tell you, won’t they?
Maggie Smith: Oh, yeah. Particularly if it’s dreadful.In Tea With the Dames
“I’m a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose.”
Image Credit: photo: Nick Briggs / © Carnival Films for Masterpiece/PBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection From Downton Abbey.
“When you get into the granny era, you’re lucky to get anything.”
Image Credit: Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images We’d give you anything you want, Mags.
“Listen, I must be 110 by now.”
Image Credit: Getty Images “Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point.”
“Old people are scary.”
Image Credit: Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images “And I have to face it. I am old and I am scary.”
On the afterlife…
Image Credit: Getty Images “I know there is something out there, and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad. But I’m not like Shirley MacLaine, who probably believes we were past lovers in another life.”
