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As Maggie Smith passed away recently, I recalled her brilliance as the Dowager in Downton Abbey.

I wanted to preface these quotes by saying something profound. But honestly, what can I say that will come even remotely close to the brilliance of the Dowager Countess Violet Crawley’s rapier-sharp wit and snark?

So, without further ado, here are my all-time favorite quotes by one of my all-time favorite actors ever and one of the best fictional characters of all time!

Ladies and gents…I present to you the best of the Dowager’s words. Are you ready to hear them?

“I know several couples who are perfectly happy. Haven’t spoken in years.”

“I was right about my maid. She’s leaving to get married. I mean, how could she be so selfish?”

Countess Violet: “You are quite wonderful the way you see room for improvement wherever you look. I never knew such reforming zeal.”
Mrs. Crawley: “I take that as a compliment.”
Countess Violet: “I must’ve said it wrong.”

Lady Mary: “I was only going to say that Sybil is entitled to her opinions.”
Countess Violet: “No, she isn’t, until she is married. And then her husband will tell her what her opinions are.”

“In my day, a lady was incapable of feeling physical attraction until she had been instructed to do so by her mama.”

Robert: “I thought you didn’t like him.”
Violet: “So what? I have plenty of friends I don’t like.”

“Don’t be defeatist, dear, it’s very middle class.”

Isobel: “Servants are human beings too.”
Violet: “Yes. But preferably only on their days off.”

Isobel: “How you hate to be wrong.”
Violet: “I wouldn’t know, I’m not familiar with the sensation.”

“It is her fuel. I mean some people run on greed, lust, even love. She runs on indignation.”

Cora: “I might send her over to visit my aunt. She could get to know New York.”
Countess Violet: “Oh, I don’t think things are quite that desperate.”

“Last night, he looked so well. Of course it would happen to a foreigner. No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else’s house.”

Isobel: “Were you a very involved mother?”
Violet: “Does it surprise you?”
Isobel: “I’d imagined them surrounded by nannies and governesses, being starched and ironed to spend an hour with you after tea.”
Violet: “Yes, but it was an hour *every day.*

“All life is a series of problems which we must try and solve, first one and then the next and then the next, until at last we die.”

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As much as I hoped that the Dowager and Maggie Smith would live forever, the day did come when Dame Smith left us all. But at least she left behind a body of work that we can take our solace from.

RIP Maggie Smith.

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