Katharine hepburn Inspirational Quotes

As one goes through life, one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move.

Bogart was like Henry Fonda - proud and happy to be an actor.

I don't believe in religion. I believe the example of Christ. I believe in the example of a perfect human being that if you can live for other people away from yourself you will be happy. If you live for yourself you will be unhappy and then you will not be able to sleep or do anything else... finally. I think insofar, and I really believe this, insofar as people do live with the other fellow [God] in mind, they have to be happy you know? Because it raises you up.

I don't care WHAT the say about me, as long as it's not the truth

All my life, I've stayed at parties too long because I didn't know when to go.

The time to make up your mind about people is never.

Nobody owes anybody anything; it's up to each individual to set high standards for himself or herself, and to set about working hard and creating a solid future.

It's a rather rude gesture, but at least it's clear what you mean.

We were brought up in the school that teaches: You do what the script tells you. Deliver the goods without comment. Live it-do it-or shut up. After all, the writer is what's important. If the script is good and you don't get in its way, it will come off okay. I never discussed a script with Spence [Spencer Tracy]; we just did it. The same with Hank [Henry Fonda] in On Golden Pond. Naturally and unconsciously we joined into what I call a musical necessity-the chemistry that brings out the essence of the characters and the work.

It's life isn't it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels.

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving.

It's how you live that really counts

As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.

What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.

Only when a woman decides not to have children, can a woman live like a man. That's what I've done.

Loved people are loving people.

Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.

Life is very hard, isn't it? It does kill you, after all.

I love rain. It's lucky, I always think.

What in the world would we do without our libraries?

If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting.

It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.

I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.

I could peel you like a pear and god himself would see the justice in it.

He's worked his entire life and he's never lived a single moment, I mean not a moment, in the real world.

You politicians remain professional because the voters remain amateur.

I believe how I act today will affect how I am tomorrow.

My, I like Judy Holliday! She looks like a Monet model. And she's so - so defenseless. I like defenseless people. They're the best.

It's not what you start in life, it's what you finish.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

The only time I am ever miserable is when I do something just for the money.

Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn't interest you, don't do it - I would have made a terrible mother.

I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

If you survive long enough, you're revered - rather like an old building.

I think all good actors are personalities. If they're not, they're not stars. What makes you a star is horsepower.

A boy sows a wild oat or two, the world winks. A girl does the same -- scandal.

I was born lucky, and I have lived lucky. What I had was used. What I still have is being used. Lucky.

The notion that work is a burden is a terrible mistake. Working and facing up to one's responsibilities: That's happiness.

Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer.

People think that I'm tough and strong and that I kicked my way through everything. But they are wrong. The truth is that when I was young I was adorable and a trembling wreck.

The woman's position in the world today is so much harder than a man's that it makes me choke every time I hear a man complain about anything.

I have always lived my life exactly as I wanted. I've tried to please no one but myself... but I'm entirely content. I can sit back in my old age and not regret a single moment, not wish to change a single thing. It's what I wish for you...a life with no regrets.

Few people know what they mean when they say, "I love you." ... Well, what does the word love mean? It means total interest. I think the reason very few people really fall in love with anyone is they're not willing to pay the price. The price is you have to adjust yourself to them.

Once a crowd chased me for an autograph. "Beat it", I said, "go sit on a tack!" "We made you", they said. "Like hell you did", I told them.

I was brought up by two extremely intelligent people who gave me the greatest gift that man can give anyone, and that is freedom from fear.

I would have been a terrible mother because I'm basically a very selfish human being. Not that that has stopped most people going off and having children.

There are no laurels in life, just new challenges.

If you need a helping hand, you can find one at the end of your arm.

I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people.

Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer.

The average Hollywood film star's ambition is to be admired by an American, courted by an Italian, married to an Englishman and have a French boyfriend.

When I’ve been unsuccessful, I’ve been controlled. When I’ve been successful, I’ve been in control.

You can’t change the music of your soul.

Silence the artist and you have silenced the most articulate voice the people have.

I have many regrets, and I'm sure everyone does. The stupid things you do, you regret... if you have any sense, and if you don't regret them, maybe you're stupid.

It is the plain women who know about love; the beautiful women are too busy being fascinating.

You can't just be talented: You have to be terribly smart and energetic and ruthless. You also have to become necessary to people, by working hard and well and bringing more than your bones and your skin to the project. Don't just show up. Transform the work, yourself, and everybody around you. Be needed. Be interesting. Be something no one else can be--and consistently.

Love fattens on smooth words.

Vitality! That's the pursuit of life, isn't it?

Cold sober, I find myself absolutely fascinating.

What acting means is that you've got to get out of your own skin.

If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

Friendship, if somebody holds out his hand toward you, you've got to reach and take it... There are too many people alone, and if you're lucky enough for somebody to want you as a friend, it's an obligation.

You are the only person you can actually change

People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.

If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.

To live creatively free, do what you know how to do now, then 'act as if' you know how to do the rest.

The thing about life is that you must survive. Life is going to be difficult, and dreadful things will happen. What you do is move along, get on with it, and be tough. Not in the sense of being mean to others, but being tough with yourself and making a deadly effort not to be defeated.

I've made forty-three pictures. Naturally I'm adorable in all of them.

I don't feel the slightest interest in the next world; I think it's here. And I think anything good that you're going to do, you should do for other people here and not so you can try to have a happy time in the next world.

I loved Spencer Tracy. I would have done anything for him.

A sharp knife cuts the quickest and hurts the least.

The lack of work destroys people.

Now how can anybody look at that and not believe in God? I mean, how can anybody look at this and not believe there is some higher power, some divine force at work in the universe greater than Man, some god that created it, that created all this, that created us?

Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.

It's a bore - B-O-R-E - when you find you've begun to rot.

Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.

You give because you love and cannot help giving.

I'm a legend because I've survived over a long period of time and still seem to be master of my fate - I'm still paddling the goddamned boat myself.

Wouldn't it be great if people could get to live suddenly as often as they die suddenly?

I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone

Let's just say that where a change was required, I adjusted. In every relationship that exists, people have to seek a way to survive. If you really care about the person, you do what's necessary, or that's the end. For the first time, I found that I really could change, and the qualities I most admired in myself I gave up. I stopped being loud and bossy... Oh, all right. I was still loud and bossy, but only behind his back.

Enemies are so stimulating.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change.

You can say or write anything about me you like. Just don't, for any reason, ever tell the truth.

Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.

Don't moan, don't whine, don't blame. Just get on with it.

I don't believe in marriage. It's bloody impractical. 'To love, honor, and obey.' If it weren't, you wouldn't have to sign a contract.

Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do.

Don't give in! Make your own trail. Don't moan. Don't complain. Think positively.

The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower—suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day, and now I place them here in memory of something that has died.

I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.

You don't pick who you fall in love with. There are so few people to love. It's hard for one adult to even like another. Almost impossible.

Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you're someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.

I've always thought men and women are not too well suited to each other. It's inevitable that they should come together, but, again, how well suited are they to live together in the same house?

Without discipline, there's no life at all.

Time is the stuff of which life is made.

I don't regret anything I've ever done; as long as I enjoyed it at the time

I have no romantic feelings about age. Either you are interesting at any age or you are not. There is nothing particularly interesting about being old - or being young, for that matter.

It's either some kind of electricity or some kind of energy. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, I've got it.

"Isn't it fun getting older?" is really a terrible fallacy. That's like saying I prefer driving an old car with a flat tire.

I don't think that work ever really destroyed anybody. I think that lack of work destroys them a hell of a lot more.

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything.

Being an actor is such a humiliating experience because you are selling yourself to the public, your face, your personality, and that is humiliating. As you get older, it becomes more humiliating because you've got less to sell.

I don't fear death, it must be like a long sleep.

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky.

Listen to the song of life.

Kindness is one of the greatest gifts you can bestow upon another. If someone is in need, lend them a helping hand. Do not wait for a thank you. True kindness lies within the act of giving without the expectation of something in return.

If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.

I think everyone is an opportunist if they have an opportunity.

You learn in life that the only person you can really correct and change is yourself.

If you follow all of the rules, you'll miss all of the fun.

Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking.

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

The terrible thing about acting in the theater is that you have to do it at night.

What the hell-you might be right, you might be wrong...but don't just avoid.

I like to move fast, and wearing high heels was tough, and low heels with a skirt is unattractive. So pants took over.

Never complain. Never explain.

Life gets harder the smarter you get, the more you know.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.