Audrey Hepburn quotes

AUDREY HEPBURN quotes

(4 May 4, 1929 – 20 January 20, 1993)

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.                 

Note: I wrote this article Audrey Hepburn quotes hopping that her elegance, wisdom and charm will inspire you.

           A quality education has the power to transform societies in a single generation, provide children with the protection they need from the hazards of poverty, labor exploitation and disease and given them the knowledge, skills and confidence to reach their full potential.

A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual.

Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.
           As a child, I was taught that it was bad manners to bring attention to yourself and to never, ever make a spectacle of yourself ... All of which I've earned a living doing.

Elegance is the only beauty that never fades.

Everything I learned I learned from the movies.

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.

For me the only things of interests are those linked to the heart.
           For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It's not the most social pastime.

How shall I sum up my life? I think I've been particularly lucky. Does that have something to do with faith also? I know my mother always used to say, 'Good things aren't supposed to just fall in your lap. God is very generous, but he expects you to do your part first'. So you have to make that effort. But at the end of a bad time or a huge effort, I've always had, how shall I say it? The prize at the end. My whole life shows that.

I am proud to have been in a business that gives pleasure, creates beauty and awakens our conscience, arouses compassion and perhaps most importantly, gives millions a respite from our so violent world.

I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles. I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

           I don't take my life seriously, but I do take what I do - in my life - seriously.

I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

I don't want to own anything until I find a place where I and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.

I guess I was just born to be a mother and if I could have had more than 2 sons, if I could have had daughters as well and dozens of them, then I certainly would.

            I have learned how to live … how to be in the world and of the world and not just to stand aside and watch.

I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel.
           I heard a definition once: 'Happiness is health and a short memory!' I wish I'd invented it, because it is very true.

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person.

I may not always be offered work, but I'll always have my family.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

I never thought I'd land in pictures with a face like mine.
            I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.
           I think that's what life is all about, actually, about children and flowers.

I tried always to do better: saw always a little further. I tried to stretch myself.

I was asked to act when I couldn't act. I was asked to sing 'Funny Face' when I couldn't sing and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn't dance and do all kinds of things I wasn't prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

I was born with an enormous need for affection and a terrible need to give it.

If I blow my nose, it gets written all over the world.

If I get married, I want to be very married.

If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them, best of all.

If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness, not my miscarriages or my father leaving home, but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough.

If you lead a simple life and that story is written, then that story will not satisfy. It needs an angle. Suppose there is no angle?
            I'm an introvert ... I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees, flowers, the sky.

I'm half-Irish, half-Dutch and I was born in Belgium. If I was a dog, I'd be in a hell of a mess!
            In Holland and Belgium and afterwards in England, my happiest moments were in the country. I've always had a passion for the outdoors, for trees, for birds and flowers.

It is too much to hope that I shall keep up my success. I don't ask for that. All I shall do is my best and hope.

It's that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so don't fuss, dear; get on with it.

I've been lucky. Opportunities don't often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book and remembering - because you can't take it all in at once.

Look, whenever I hear or read I’m beautiful, I simply don't understand it … I'm certainly not beautiful in any conventional way. I didn’t make my career on beauty.

Make-up can only make you look pretty on the outside but it doesn't help if you're ugly on the inside. Unless you eat the make-up.

My greatest ambition is to have a career without becoming a career woman.

My life isn't theories and formulas. It’s part instinct, part common sense. Logic is as good a word as any and I've absorbed what logic I have from everything and everyone … from my mother, from training as a ballet dancer, from Vogue magazine, from the laws of life and health and nature.
            My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses and the little sleeveless dresses.

My own life has been much more than a fairy tale. I've had my share of difficult moments, but whatever difficulties I've gone through, I've always gotten the prize at the end.

No matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

Not to live for the day, that would be materialistic, but to treasure the day. I realize that most of us live on the skin, on the surface without appreciating just how wonderful it is simply to be alive at all.

            Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I'm possible’!

On the one hand maybe I've remained infantile, while on the other I matured quickly, because at a young age I was very aware of suffering and fear.
           

Paris is always a good idea.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Pick the day. Enjoy it - to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come ... The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present - and I don't want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

Sabrina was a dreamer who lived a fairy-tale and she was a romantic, an incorrigible romantic, which I am. I could never be cynical. I wouldn't dare. I'd roll over and die before that.
            Sex appeal is something that you feel deep down inside. It's suggested rather than shown. I'm not as well-stacked as Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida, but there is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don't need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

Since the world has existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing.
           Some people dream of having a big swimming pool. With me, it's closets.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you're exactly the same.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.

The greatest victory has been to be able to live with myself, to accept my shortcomings. ... I'm a long way from the human being I'd like to be. But I've decided I'm not so bad after all.

The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters.
           There are certain shades of limelight that can wreck a girl's complexion.

There is a shade of red for every woman.

There is one difference between a long life and a great dinner; in the dinner, the sweet things come last.

There must be something wrong with those people who think Audrey Hepburn doesn't perspire, hiccup or sneeze, because they know that's not true. In fact, I hiccup more than most.

True friends are families which you can select.
           

Unfortunately, people basically learn little from war. We needed each other so badly that we were kind, we hid each other, we gave each other something to eat. But when it was over, people were just the same - gossipy and mean.

We all want to be loved, don't we? Everyone looks for a way of finding love. It's a constant search for affection in every walk of life.

When the chips are down, you are alone and loneliness can be terrifying. Fortunately, I've always had a chum I could call. And I love to be alone. It doesn't bother me one bit. I’m my own company.

When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that's when I think life is over.

Whenever I hear or read I'm beautiful, I simply don't understand it … I’m certainly not beautiful in any conventional way. I didn't make my career on beauty.

Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it.
           

You can always tell what kind of a person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you.

You can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly ... you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn't conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive.
            You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
            You have to look at yourself objectively. Analyze yourself like an instrument. You have to be absolutely frank with yourself. Face your handicaps, don't try to hide them. Instead, develop something else.

Your heart just breaks, that's all. But you can't judge, or point fingers. You just have to be lucky enough to find someone who appreciates you.

Others about AUDREY HEPBURN

Albert Finney – Playing a love scene with a woman as sexy as Audrey, you sometimes get to the edge where make-believe and reality are blurred, all that staring into each other's eyes - you pick up vibes that are decidedly not fantasy … The time spent with Audrey is one of the closest I've ever had.

Billy Wilder – She was so gracious and graceful that everybody fell in love with her after five minutes. Everybody was in love with this girl, I included. My problem was that I am a guy who speaks in his sleep. I toss around and talk and talk … But fortunately, my wife's first name is Audrey as well.

Billy Wilder – Audrey was known for something which has disappeared and that is elegance, grace and manners … God kissed her on the cheek and there she was.

This girl, single-handedly, may make bosoms a thing of the past.

Cynthia Rowley – I would look at some of the other stars like Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe and I would think – there's just no way, I could never be like them. That was a man's idea of beauty and Audrey was more like a woman's idea of beauty. It was something that was attainable, that I could identify with. She was the first to make something that's not sexy, sexy.

Gregory Peck – There is no doubt that the princess did become a queen - not only on the screen. One of the most loved, one of the most skillful, one of the most intelligent, one of the most sensitive, charming actresses - and friends, in my life - but also in the later stages of her life, the UNICEF ambassador to the children of the world. The generosity, sensitivity, the nobility of her service to the children of the world and the mothers of the world will never be forgotten.

Hubert de Givenchy – There is not a woman alive who does not dream of looking like Audrey Hepburn.

Isaac Mizrahi – One got a sense that Audrey Hepburn didn't know how beautiful she was. There was never another movie star like her.

Janis Blackschleger – She was always on time and ready to work. She knew her lines, in fact, her suggestions elevated the lines - she could give lessons on celebrity behavior.

When you were with Audrey you felt prettier, better about yourself and your own possibilities.

Julie Leifermann – [I asked her] how do you and Rob do it? How do you spend all this time together, travel together, live together, without killing each other? She said, 'We just enjoy going through the world together'. It was the sweetest thing to see their little jokes - that playful, mischievous side of her. She was so smart, so well-read, spoke gazillions of languages. No wonder Robbie ever got bored with her. Having known Audrey, I have less tolerance for the star thing and she was responsible for me having less tolerance - if Audrey Hepburn can live on the road for 3 months and be more talented than 99.9 % of anybody on this planet and come in and be on time and know her material and be delightful and professional and give you gold on camera - when I come across the behavior now, I have a really hard time with it. Celebrities today need to go to the Audrey Hepburn School of How to be a Star. She should have given lessons or written a book about it!

Kevyn Aucoin – Audrey had an angelic quality about her. She didn't act like she was better than everyone, she just had a presence, an energy, a sort of light coming from within her that was overwhelming.

          The lesson from Audrey is that she faced her life with as much optimism and courage as she could.

Richard Dreyfuss – She was the best that we could possibly be; she was perfectly charming and perfectly loving. She was a dream. And she was the kind of dream that you remember when you wake up smiling.

Robert Wolders – Audrey sensed very early in her life and career that self-worth based on fame or beauty is very short-lived and so she remained forever herself - realistic, aware and caring.

Once she sensed that she could trust somebody, she'd do anything for them. And if she were disappointed in them, it would be the end of the world for her.

Sid Avery – Audrey was so impish and yet so simply beautiful. A lot of the other celebrities depended on other things, physically - on their breasts and their shape. She didn't make a big thing out of that and for that reason, I thought she was wonderful. Because you didn't have to be conscious of the physique, you were only conscious of the persona.

The New York Times – Thanks to their first glimpse of Audrey Hepburn in 'Roman Holiday', half a generation of young females stopped stuffing their bras and teetering on stiletto heels.

Unknown – Audrey Hepburn looks like every girl and like no girl.

William Holden – Before I even met Audrey, I had a crush on her and after I met her, just a day later, I felt as if we were old friends … most men who worked with her felt both fatherly or brotherly about her, while harboring romantic feelings about her … she was the love of my life.