Audrey Hepburn was a legendary actress, fashion icon, and humanitarian who captured the hearts of audiences around the world. She was born on May 4, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium, as Audrey Kathleen Ruston.
Hepburn spent her early childhood in Belgium, where her father worked as a banker and her mother was a Dutch baroness. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she moved with her mother to the Netherlands during World War II. During the war, Hepburn experienced great hardship, including the death of her uncle and the near-starvation of her family.
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After the war, Hepburn studied ballet in Amsterdam and later moved to London to pursue a career in acting. Her breakout role came in 1951, when she played the lead in the Broadway play “Gigi.” The following year, she made her film debut in the British movie “One Wild Oat.”
Hepburn’s big break came in 1953, when she starred in the Hollywood film “Roman Holiday” alongside Gregory Peck. Her performance as a princess who escapes her royal duties and falls in love with an American journalist earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Hepburn continued to star in a string of successful films, including “Sabrina,” “Funny Face,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and “My Fair Lady.” Her performances were known for their charm, elegance, and grace.
In addition to her acting career, Hepburn was also a fashion icon, known for her classic style and collaborations with designer Hubert de Givenchy. She famously wore Givenchy’s little black dress in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” which became one of the most iconic fashion moments in film history.
Hepburn was also a humanitarian and worked as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in the latter part of her life. She traveled to Africa, South America, and Asia to advocate for children’s rights and promote UNICEF’s mission to improve the lives of disadvantaged children around the world.
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Audrey Hepburn passed away on January 20, 1993, from appendiceal cancer. She remains one of the most beloved actresses of all time, remembered for her beauty, talent, and philanthropy.
Embodied in the timeless words of Audrey Hepburn, lies a treasure trove of wisdom on kindness, generosity, and empathy. Here are some profound quotes that illuminate the beauty of these virtues.
Famous Audrey Hepburn Quotes
1.“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”
2. “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.”
3. “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.”
4. “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 is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It’s the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows & the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.”
5. “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.”
6. “If I’m honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.”
7. “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”
8. “I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.”
9. “I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.”
10. “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.”
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11. “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
12. “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.”
13. “You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.”
14. “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.”
15. “Paris is always a good idea.”
16. “The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a Woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows.”
17. “If I get married, I want to be very married.”
18. “When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that’s when I think life is over.”
19. “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.”
20. “Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.”
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21. “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 in all at once.”
22. “Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it.”
23. “I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.”
24. “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.”
25. “You can always tell what kind of a person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you.”
26. “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’.”
27. “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.”
28. “People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”
29. “I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.”
30. “Happy girls are the prettiest”
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31. “I don’t take my life seriously, but I do take what I do – in my life – seriously -”
32. “Everything I learned I learned from the movies.”
33. “True friends are families which you can select.”
34. “I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and… I believe in miracles.”
35. “For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.”
36. “And the beauty of a woman, with passing years only grows!”
37. “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.”
38. “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.”
39. “I tried always to do better: saw always a little further. I tried to stretch myself.”
40. “If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worth whileness 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.”
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41. “Good things aren’t supposed to just fall into your lap. God is very generous, but He expects you to do your part first.”
42. “For me the only things of interests are those linked to the heart”
43. “Elegance is the only beauty that never fades.”
44. “I have learnt how to live…how to be in the world and of the world, and not just to stand aside and watch.”
45. “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.”
46. “Some people dream of having a big swimming pool. With me, it’s closets”
47. “My life isn’t theories and formulae. 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.”
48. “Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.”
49. “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”
50. “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.”
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51. “A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual.”
52. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
53. “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!”
54. “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.”
55. “No matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself”
56. “My greatest ambition is to have a career without becoming a career woman.”
57. “The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.”
58. “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.”
59. “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. I n fact, I hiccup more than most.”
60. “There is a shade of red for every woman.”
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61. “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.”
62. “I hate girls that giggle all the time… You hate any girl that David looks at.”
63. “There is one difference between a long life & a great dinner; in the dinner, the sweet things come last.”
64. “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.”
65. “I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong”
66. “I don’t want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I’m not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It’s like Tiffany’s.”
67. “It’s sad if people think that’s (homemaking) a dull existance, [but] you can’t just buy an apartment and furnish it and walk away. It’s the flowers you choose, the music you play, the smile you have waiting. I want it to be gay and cheerful, a haven in this troubled world. I don’t want my husband and children to come home and find a rattled woman. Our era is already rattled enough, isn’t it?”
68. “walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
69. “And…I think that’s what life is all about, actually, about children and flowers.”
70. “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.”
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71. “Ricorda, se hai bisogno di una mano la troverai alla fine del tuo braccio. Remember, if you need a hand you’ll find it at the end of your arm.”
72. “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.”
73. “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.”
74. “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.”
75. “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.”
76. “La Vie En Rose. It is the French way of saying, ‘I am looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses.”
77. “I still read fairy tales, and I like them best of all.”
78. “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.”
79. “If I blow my nose, it gets written all over the world.”
80. “Each, in its own way, was unforgettable. It would be difficult to — Rome! By all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live.”
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81. “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.”
82. “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?”
83. “Well, it’s nice being top banana in the shock department.”
84. “There is a science of war, but how strange that there isn’t a science of peace. There are colleges of war; why can’t we study peace?”
85. “I’d never worry about age if I knew I could go on being loved and have the possibility to love.”
86. “Auntie Mame, who was the british lady?” ‘Oh, she’s from Pittsburgh’ ‘But she had the acc-‘ ‘Well, when your from Pittsburgh you gotta do something”
87. “True beauty in a woman is reflected in the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows.”
88. “I never thought I’d land in pictures with a face like mine.”
89. “Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.”
90.“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.”
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91. “Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.”
92. “I may not always be offered work, but I’ll always have my family.”
93. “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.”
94. “There are more important things than outward appearance. No amount of makeup can cover an ugly personality.”
95. “Giving is living. If you stop wanting to give, there’s nothing more to live for.”
96. “I believe, every day, you should have at least one exquisite moment.”
97. “The most important thing is to enjoy your life, to be happy, it’s all that matters.”
98. “Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.”
99. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible.”
100. “They say love is the best investment; the more you give, the more you get in return.”