Helen Gurley Brown Quotes

Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing everyone a disservice by perpetuating the idea that beautiful is better than plain, because having done everything just about that you can do, sparing no expense, and not effort, to become better looking, I know that only so much can be done.

Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork - reading, writing, thinking - can.

Feeling insecure is good for you. It forces you to do something better, drives you to use all your talents.

Get up and do it if it needs to be done, even if you hate it!

I think I'm a fairly average person, I think I have only a medium IQ. I didn't go to college, obviously.

Never expect anybody - except possibly your analyst - to be as thrilled about your sex life as you are.

some bosses are so greedy (for themselves only) they forget underlings are not thirteenth-century peasants who can be satisfied with a glass of mead and three festivals a year.

Love doesn't drop on you unexpectedly; you have to give off signals, sort of like an amateur radio operator.

When you meet a man, don't you always idly wonder what he'd be like in bed? I do.

My success was not based so much on any great intelligence but on great common sense.

You know you can't hope yourself a better life - you must take yourself there.

good girls go to heaven and bad girls go everywhere

People never get tired of looking at beautiful pictures of gorgeous girls.

My father died when I was 10; my sister got polio a couple of years later and was paralyzed. So there I was - my sister in a wheel chair, my father gone, and my mother a quiet little mouse. You see, it was the '30s in the South, so my mother was not prepared to cope. So I was scared to death. And being that scared, everything afterward became a struggle not to go down the drain. Struggling became a way of life for me.

Feed the alligators and you get bigger alligators.

After you're older, two things are possibly more important than any others: health and money.

The only reason a man doesn't call is that he doesn't want to.

Trying to describe a good marriage is like trying to describe your adrenal glands. You know they're in there functioning but you don't really understand how they work.

Never fail to know that if you are doing all the talking, you are boring somebody.

If you do the best you can, no matter how bad the situation, you probably are going to come out okay.

Charm is the next best asset after looks and brains - and can almost make up for looks.

Nearly every glamorous, wealthy, successful career woman you might envy now started out as some kind of schlep.

One of the paramount reasons for staying attractive is so you can have somebody to go to bed with.

There is no better way to get to know someone than to have an affair ... it can save years of lunches.

I just had the idea that all the covergirls should be gorgeous, and not just interesting, not beautiful in an offbeat or exotic way, just plain yummy gorgeous.

Two warm bodies and one cold bottle of champagne will produce something more wonderful than would happen without the champagne.

Good posture is the one most important thing anybody can do now to look better.

I care. I care a lot. I think of Cosmopolitan all day, and I run scared. So it's a combination of fright, caring and anxiety.

Don't use men to get what you want in life. Get it yourself.

If you’re not a sex object, you’re in trouble.

If you're a little mouseburger, come with me. I was a mouseburger and I will help you. You're so much more wonderful than you think. Cosmopolitan is shot full of this stuff although outsiders don't realize it. It is, in its way, an inspiration magazine.

Talkers expand like bread dough.

Every morning when I'm thrashing around on the floor doing my solid hour of heavy exercises I'm not really doing that for anyone but myself. It makes me feel good.

The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren't is the willingness to work very, very hard.

You can have your titular recognition. I'll take the money and the power.

Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort.

I've just been so lucky. I don't know if you're really able to take advantage of your full potential until you're older. There are a few people who are incredibly gifted and make it when they are very young, but I didn't. With women it takes longer. You just keep working and when you finally get it, it feels very, very nice.

I think you keep two sets of books. In one set, you record the truth -- how well you are really doing. This is the secret set -- just for you and loved ones. In the other set are more modest entries and statements, and these are for public consumption!

Never throw anything good away -- real wool, pure silk. Put it away and wait for it to come back.

There are not that many people who know how to edit. It's a funny tiny little obscure talent but it's very special. You have to have the feeling of popular taste.

A man likes to sleep with a brainy girl. She’s a challenge. If he makes good with her, he figures he must be good himself.

It's unrealistic to think you can only have one good product. People are not that poor. They can buy what they want.

Being somebody is better than not being somebody vis à vis what you want out of life. If you want to talk to interesting people and have them talk to you, and if you want enough money to live someplace pleasant and to go on trips and be able to help people you love, you simply have to be somebody.

I guess I'm a survivor. There are many of us survivors and any successful woman of my age has somewhat of that in her.

My own philosophy is if you're not having sex, you're finished. It separates the girls from the old people.

If I had to choose between sex and food, I would choose food, but I'd choose sex over nearly everything else.

The happiest people I know are not those who are the most beautiful, rich or famous. The happiest people I see are simply those who stay cheerful and try to cheer up others while getting through their own bad stuff

Do what's in front of you as well as possible. Keep going until you realize what you're best at.