126 Memorable Audrey Hepburn Quotes On Doing The Impossible

She charmed the world with dozens of memorable film portrayals and her devotion to helping others. With archetypical style and sophistication, Audrey Hepburn’s great heart, wisdom and humility are forever encapsulated as she remains a beloved icon of the twentieth century.  

Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 in Belgium and was a British actress and humanitarian. She was living with her mother in the Netherlands when the German invasion and occupation occurred during World War 2. Life was hard during this time and she had to survive Nazi brutality and the Dutch famine over the winter of 1944. She dug up and ate tulip bulbs to survive the famine, danced ballet for groups of people to raise money, and stayed in bed and read to forget the hunger.

After the war ended in 1945, Hepburn moved to Amsterdam. She studied ballet and began performing as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions, which led to minor appearances in several films. Her rise to fame came in 1953 when she starred in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck. Hepburn became the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance.

She went on to star in other successful films and musicals such as Sabrina, Funny Face, The Nun’s Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade and My Fair Lady. In 1967, she starred in the thriller Wait Until Dark and received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.

Hepburn had 31 film credits to her name, yet always considered her greatest role to be a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, where she helped children in Africa and Latin America until she died in 1993, aged 63. Upon her passing, her sons set up the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund to honor and continue their mother’s important humanitarian work.

Hepburn consistently captivated audiences and fashion lovers with her style, charm, and grace. And in addition to her unmistakable beauty and effortless style, she was a wonderful person inside and out. Her Nazi experience marked her for life and led to a deep sense of purpose which went beyond the screen. She most definitely achieved the impossible and leaves behind a humanitarian legacy with inspirational words we all need to hear.

1. Giving is living. If you stop wanting to give, there’s nothing more to live for.

Audrey Hepburn

2. To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

4. I believe, every day, you should have at least one exquisite moment. 

Audrey Hepburn

5. The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

7. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

8. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

9. You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

Audrey Hepburn

10. Life is a party. Dress for it.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

12. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

13. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

14. Well, it’s nice being top banana in the shock department.

Audrey Hepburn

15. Dress like you are already famous.

Audrey Hepburn

16. I’d never worry about age if I knew I could go on being loved and have the possibility to love.

Audrey Hepburn

17. I don’t believe in collective guilt, but I do believe in collective responsibility.

Audrey Hepburn

18. 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?

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

20. Civilization is human rights, it is the path of setting man free from men, phobia, to survive it, we must cultivate the science of human relationships.

Audrey Hepburn

21. There is a moral obligation that those who have should give to those who don’t.

Audrey Hepburn

22. For those who are letting age get in the way of love. The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.

Audrey Hepburn

23. I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.

Audrey Hepburn

24. Love is action. It isn’t just talk, and it never was.

Audrey Hepburn

25. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

26. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

27. There are more important things than outward appearance. No amount of makeup can cover an ugly personality.

Audrey Hepburn

28. The beautiful eyes is to see the good in everyone and the beautiful lips only talk a nice words as for the balance is to walk in your path and believed that you are not going to be alone one day.

Audrey Hepburn

29. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

30. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

31. I’m not beautiful. My mother once called me an ugly duckling. But, listed separately, I have a few good features.

Audrey Hepburn

32. The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair.

Audrey Hepburn

33. 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.”

Audrey Hepburn

34. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

35. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

36. I don’t want to be alone; I want to be left alone.

Audrey Hepburn

37. My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses, and the little sleeveless dresses.

Audrey Hepburn

38. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

39. Hypocrisy, is when individuals become abnoxiously contradicting, unrealistically criticizing the government of South Sudan, but yet are part of the puzzle underneath the Salva Kiir’s regime.

Audrey Hepburn

40. There is more to feminine charm than just measurements. I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much femininity, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

Audrey Hepburn

41. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

42. 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.’

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

44. People in these places 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.

Audrey Hepburn

45. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

46. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Audrey Hepburn

47. And the beauty of a woman, with passing years only grows!

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

49. [I have] enormous faith, but it’s not attached to any one in particular religion. My mother was one thing, my father another. In Holland they were all Calvinists. That has no importance at all to me.

Audrey Hepburn

50. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

51. I can convey just as much sex appeal picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

53. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

54. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

55. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

56. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

57. 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!

Audrey Hepburn

58. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

59. Water is life, and clean water means health.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

61. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

62. My first big mission for UNICEF in Ethiopia was just to attract attention, before it was too late, to conditions which threatened the whole country. My role was to inform the world, to make sure that the people of Ethiopia were not forgotten.

Audrey Hepburn

63. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

64. Actually, you have to be a little bit in love with your leading man and vice versa. If you’re going to portray love, you have to feel it. You can’t do it any other way. But you don’t carry it beyond the set.

Audrey Hepburn

65. There are certain shades of limelight that can wreck a girl’s complexion.

Audrey Hepburn

66. I don’t take my life seriously, but I do take what I do – in my life – seriously.

Audrey Hepburn

67. They say love is the best investment; the more you give, the more you get in return.

Audrey Hepburn

68. I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

Audrey Hepburn

69. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

70. Forgive Quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.

Audrey Hepburn

71. Some people dream of having a big swimming pool. With me, it’s closets.

Audrey Hepburn

72. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

74. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

75. Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

77. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

82. Paris is always a good idea.

Audrey Hepburn

83. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Audrey Hepburn

84. When you have found it, you should stick to it.

Audrey Hepburn

85. Everything I learned I learned from the movies.

Audrey Hepburn

86. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

87. I have no illusions about my looks. I think my face is funny.

Audrey Hepburn

88. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

89. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

90. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

91. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

Audrey Hepburn

92. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

93. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

94. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

96. As a matter of fact, I rather feel like expressing myself now.

Audrey Hepburn

97. Good things aren’t supposed to just fall into your lap. God is very generous, but He expects you to do your part first.

Audrey Hepburn

98. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

99. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

100. For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.

Audrey Hepburn

101. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

103. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

104. For me the only things of interests are those linked to the heart.

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

107. True friends are families which you can select.

Audrey Hepburn

108. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

109. Fewer things are lovelier to me than a full-blown rose when it opens up its heart.

Audrey Hepburn

110. Elegance is the only beauty that never fades. A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual. 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.’

Audrey Hepburn

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

Audrey Hepburn

112. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

113. 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?

Audrey Hepburn

114. If we are meant to “love thy neighbor as theyself,” then surely we should love the world’s children as our own.

Audrey Hepburn

115. You can only hope to get a combination of happy work and happy life.

Audrey Hepburn

116. There is a shade of red for every woman.

Audrey Hepburn

117. I never thought I’d land in pictures with a face like mine.

Audrey Hepburn

118. I hate girls that giggle all the time… 

You hate any girl that David looks at.

Audrey Hepburn

119. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

120. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

121. 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.

Audrey Hepburn

122. The beauty in 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 and that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows and the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.

Audrey Hepburn

123. And…I think that’s what life is all about, actually, about children and flowers.

Audrey Hepburn

124. I’m not a born actress, as such, I care about expressing feelings.

Audrey Hepburn

125. 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?

Audrey Hepburn

126. 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.

Audrey Hepburn