Iconic is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the fashion and entertainment industry, but Audrey Hepburn is one of the few people who really deserve the label. From her roles in My Fair Lady to Breakfast at Tiffany’s with that unforgettable look — the black dress that made us dream and go crazy — she was one of the most elegant women to ever grace the silver screen.
Regarded as the epitome of natural beauty, her looks have been copied and imitated by countless women over the years, but there are so many other things that made her special. She was a woman who seemed to have it all: personality, talent, beauty, grace, style… and above all else, she wanted to bring some positive change, which was reflected in her humanitarian work. And yet she was so humble and genuine about it. She loved with a passion that conquered the world.
To be bold, not scary; confident, not arrogant. She was a master at this balancing deed — and over the years, she shared her wisdom with the rest of us. From her super popular “I believe in pink” to her lesser-known ones, Audrey Hepburn’s quotes are as memorable as she was, and we’ve collected some of our favorites for you to enjoy!
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“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.”
"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."
“As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
“I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.”
“The more there is, the less I want. The more man flies to the moon, the more I want to look at a tree.”
“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.”
“Gardening is the greatest tonic and therapy a human being can have. Even if you have only a tiny piece of earth, you can create something beautiful, which we all have a great need for. If we begin by respecting plants, it's inevitable we'll respect people.”
“Forgive Quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.”
“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.”
“A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual.”
“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”
“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.”
“I have learnt how to live… how to be in the world and of the world, and not just to stand aside and watch.”
“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.”
“You can always tell what kind of a person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you.”
A diamond stud and something dangly would be my selection for Audrey. Most gorgeous girl ever.
“Everything I learned I learned from the movies.”
Everything I needed to know I learned at Burger King. Sorry Audrey.
“Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization of politics.”
“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.”
“There is one difference between a long life and a great dinner; in the dinner, the sweet things come last.”
“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.”
“You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.”
“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.”
“I heard a definition once: happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.”
“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 never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s mind is not in my mind. I just do my thing.”
“Good things aren’t supposed to just fall into your lap. God is very generous, but He expects you to do your part first.”
“My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses, and the little sleeveless dresses.”
"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."
“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.”
“There is a science of war, but how strange that there isn't a science of peace. There are colleges of war; why can not we study peace?”
“Love does not terrify me. But the going away of it does. I have been made terribly aware of how everything can be wrenched away from you and your life torn apart. If I had known very secure nights all my life, if I had never seen or felt the fear of being tortured or deported or blown up into a million pieces, then I would not fear it.”
“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.”
“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. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.”
“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.”
“When you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you, that’s when I think life is over.”
“Whatever a man might do, whatever misery or heartache your children might give you – and they give you a lot – however much your parents irritate you – it doesn’t matter because you love them.”
“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.”
“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 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."
"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."
"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."
“Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being's suffering. Nothing. Not a career, not wealth, not intelligence, certainly not status. We have to feel for one another if we're going to survive with dignity.”
“If we are meant to "love thy neighbor as theyself," then surely we should love the world's children as our own.”
“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.”
“I’m not beautiful. My mother once called me an ugly duckling. But, listed separately, I have a few good features.”
“I saw but one glaring truth: these are not natural disasters but man-made tragedies for which there is only one man-made solution-peace.”
“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 give them the knowledge, skills and confidence to reach their full potential.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering.”
“This is what you do on your very first day in Paris. You get yourself, not a drizzle, but some honest-to-goodness rain, and you find yourself someone really nice and drive her through the Bois de Boulogne in a taxi. The rain's very important. That's when Paris smells its sweetest. It's the damp chestnut trees.”
“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.”
“Take care of the small circle around you. When you have succeeded with them, then move outwards, one small step at a time.”
“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.”
“People in Ethiopia, the Sudan, etc., don't know Audrey Hepburn, but they recognize the name UNICEF. When they see UNICEF, their faces light up, because they know that something is happening. In the Sudan, for example, they call a water pump 'UNICEF.'”
“It makes me self-conscious. It’s because I’m known, in the limelight, that it’s getting all the gravy, but if you knew, if you saw some of the people who make it possible for UNICEF to help these children survive. These are the people who do the jobs-the unknowns, whose names you will never know… I at least get a dollar a year, but they don’t.”
“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.”
“I was born with something that appealed to an audience at that particular time… I acted instinctively. I’ve had one of the greatest schools of all – a whole row of great, great directors.”
“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?”
“A child is a child in any country, whatever the politics. Let's get down to basics. That's what a child forces you to do. Nothing else much matters, there is no complicated diplomacy, when a child is starving. It's simple. And we'd better do something about it. For our sakes, too. That is, if we want to continue to call ourselves human.”
“What would be awful would be to die and look back miserably - seeing only the bad things, the opportunities missed, or what could have been.”
“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.”
“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 can testify to what UNICEF means to children, because I was among those who received food and medical relief right after World War II. I have a long-lasting gratitude and trust for what UNICEF does.”
“People associate me with a time when movies were pleasant, when women wore pretty dresses in films and you heard beautiful music. I always love it when people write me and and say ‘I was having a rotten time, and I walked into a cinema and saw one of your movies, and it made such a difference.”
