Helen Hayes Quotations

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.

Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up... a lot of people don't have the courage to do it.

There's a little vanity chair that Charlie gave me the first Christmas we knew each other. I'll not be parting with that, nor our bed - the four-poster - I'll be needing that to die in.

Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does.

Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch Life from the side lines. For those who play the game, an hour may be a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity.

From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.

Only the poet can look beyond the detail and see the whole picture.

The truth is that there is only one terminal dignity - love. And the story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.

Age is not important unless you're a cheese.

We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.

I cry out for order and find it only in art.

When traveling with someone, take large does of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee.

The story of a love is not important-what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.

Everybody starts at the top, and then has the problem of staying there. Lasting accomplishment, however, is still achieved through a long, slow climb and self-discipline.

One has to grow up with good talk in order to form the habit of it.

Actors work and slave and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end.

Actors cannot choose the manner in which they are born. Consequently, it is the one gesture in their lives completely devoid of self-consciousness.

People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach retirement age seem very admirable to me.

The good die young but not always. The wicked prevail but not consistently. I am confused by life, and I feel safe within the confines of the theatre.

I'm leaving the screen because I don't think I am very good in the pictures and I have this beautiful dream that I'm elegant on the stage.

The worst constructed play is a Bach fugue when compared to life.

When traveling with someone, take large doses of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee

Life would give her everything of consequence, life would shape her, not we. All we were good for was to make the introductions.

Lasting accomplishment... Is still achieved through a long, slow climb and self discipline.

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.

The story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.

It's a wonderful thing you are doing in Akron. Keeping this great theater alive for the performing arts and for your children.

Stardom can be a gilded slavery.

All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.

The faster we travel, the less there is to see.

The theatre demanded of its members stamina, good digestion, the ability to adjust, and a strong sense of humor. There was no discomfort an actor didn't learn to endure. To survive, we had to be horses and we were.

In the last stages of a final illness, we need only the absence of pain and the presence of family.

At 50, you need to laugh about your age. If you don't, everybody else will do it for you. Happy birthday, old chum!

There is only one terminal dignity - love.

Yes, I have doubted. I have wandererd off the path. I have been lost. But I always returned. It is beyond the logic I seek. It is intuitive - an intrinsic, built-in sense of direction. I seem to find my way home. My faith has wavered but has saved me.

An actress always knows when she's hit it and mostly you haven't; but once or twice I think I hit it right, so maybe that's good enough for one life.

In this sometimes turbulent world, the river is a cosmic symbol of durability and destiny; awesome, but steadfast. In this period of deep national concern, I wish everyone could live for a while beside a great river.

When Charles first saw our child Mary, he said all the proper things for a new father. He looked upon the poor little red thing and blurted, "She's more beautiful than the Brooklyn Bridge."

The expert at anything was once a beginner.

Victoria had the discipline of being a queen to help her through the biggest trial of her life - when she lost Albert and faltered. I've had the discipline of the theatre to help me over the ups and downs. A wonderful life . . Go it old girl. You've done it well.

Perhaps we have been misguided into taking too much responsibility from our children, leaving them too little room for discovery

Always aim for achievement, and forget about success.

We live in a very tense society. We are pulled apart... and we all need to learn how to pull ourselves together.... I think that at least part of the answer lies in solitude.

When it comes to staying tuned: if you rest, you rust.

All my dogs have been scamps and thieves and troublemakers and I've adored them all.

The old-fashioned idea that the simple piling up of experiences, one on top of another, can make you an artist, is, of course, so much rubbish. If acting were just a matter of experience, then any busy harlot could make Garbo's Camille pale.

Science has taught us to lengthen life. Now we must learn to make a longer life worth living. Older people deserve choices that let us live out our days as we wish. We've seen people making such choices all over America, and we realize what we might have known from the start: For most of us, there really is no place like home.

There is no racial or religious prejudice among people in the theater. The only prejudice is against bad actors, especially successful ones.

When books are opened, we discover that we have wings

Childhood is a short season.

We may be living in the twentieth century, in resplendent sophistication. But deep down, most of us find ourselves still in the Stone Age of superstition.

Egocentrics are attracted to the inept. It gives them one more excuse for patting themselves on the back.

We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy or sorrow. They illuminate the thoughts for which we only grope; they give us the strength and balm we cannot find in ourselves. Whenever I feel my courage wavering, I rush to them. They give me the wisdom of acceptance, the will and resiliance to push on.

Love is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.

Our house was always filled with dogs... They helped make our house a kennel, it is true, but the constant patter of their filthy paws and the dreadful results of their brainless activities have warmed me throughout the years.

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that 'achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.

If you rest, you rust.

An actress's life is so transitory-suddenly you're a building.