Maggie Smith’s Top 20 'Downton Abbey' Quotes To Honor Her Passing

The great Dame Maggie Smith, an iconic actress with a career that spanned eight decades and earned her two Oscars, seven BAFTAs, four Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Tony, passed away on Sept. 27, 2024. While the British actress was known for countless projects including Death on the Nile , Sister Act , The Secret Garden , The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie , A Room with a View , Gosford Park and the Harry Potter films, perhaps her most recent iconic role was as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham on PBS's Downton Abbey .

Across six seasons of the British period drama along with two movies, Smith spat some of television's wittiest one-liners and sharpest zingers. Whether she was sparring with cousin Isobel or admonishing her son or giving advice to Lady Mary, Smith's Dowager Countess always knew just what to say.

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In honor of Maggie Smith's passing, here are twenty of her best lines from Downton Abbey .

Maggie Smith's best lines on Downton Abbey

1. “What is a weekend?”

2. "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."

3. "I couldn't have electricity in the house, I wouldn't sleep a wink. All those vapors floating about."

4. “Don't be defeatist, dear. It's very middle class.”

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5. “‘Lie’ is so unmusical a word.’”

6. “I’m not a romantic…but even I concede that the heart does not exist solely for the purpose of pumping blood.”

7. “Sir Richard, life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.”

8. “We can't have him assassinated. I suppose.”

9. “One way or another, everyone goes down the aisle with half the story hidden.”

10. “If she won't say yes when he might be poor, he won't want her when he will be rich.”

11. “It’s the job of grandmothers to interfere.”

12. “I was right about my maid. She’s leaving — to get married! How could she be so selfish?”

13. “First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I’m living in an H.G. Wells novel.”

14. “Alas, I am beyond impropriety.”

15. "There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends, that's the real test."

16. “At my age, one must ration one’s excitement.”

17. "A woman of my age can face reality better than most men."

18. "There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends, that's the real test."

19. “You know me: never complain, never explain.”

20. “It seems a pity to miss such a good pudding."

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