Jane Fonda Quotations

It's never too late - never too late to start over, never too late to be happy.

I was so devastated by my second divorce that I had a nervous breakdown.

Feminism is not just about women; it's about letting all people lead fuller lives.

A mother who is obsessing about being thin and dieting and exercising is not going to be a very good mother.

You don't learn from successes; you don't learn from awards; you don't learn from celebrity; you only learn from wounds and scars and mistakes and failures. And that's the truth.

We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation.

I'm now the elder in the position of doling out wisdom and trying to mend fences.

Instead of drifting along like a leaf in a river, understand who you are and how you come across to people and what kind of an impact you have on the people around you and the community around you and the world, so that when you go out, you can feel you have made a positive difference.

Our youth deserve the opportunity to complete their high school and college education, free of early parenthood. Their future children deserve the opportunity to grow up in financially and emotionally stable homes. Our communities benefit from healthy, productive, well-prepared young people.

If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.

It's about time we make the well-being of our young people more important than ideology and politics. As a country, we benefit from investing in their future by investing in teen pregnancy prevention.

If we as a nation are to break the cycle of poverty, crime and the growing underclass of young people ill equipped to be productive citizens, we need to not only implement effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy, but we must also help those who have already given birth so that they become effective, nurturing, bonding parents.

Children born to teens have less supportive and stimulating environments, poorer health, lower cognitive development, and worse educational outcomes. Children of teen mothers are at increased risk of being in foster care and becoming teen parents themselves, thereby repeating the cycle.

The people who did you wrong or who didn't quite know how to show up, you forgive them. And forgiving them allows you to forgive yourself too.

We're not meant to be perfect. It took me a long time to learn that.

I have a confidence about my life that comes from standing tall on my own two feet.

I was in my mid-40s. I was a bulimic, and I realized if I continue with this addiction of mine, I will not be able to continue doing my life. The older you get the more damage it does; it takes longer to recover from a binge. And it was very hard.

I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn't have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism, not just make movies about it. I admired this about him.

Seek women mentors. If you're a businesswoman, look at the TEDx conferences. There's a lot of businesswomen that speak on there. I find them extremely inspiring.

As I started getting older, I realized, 'I'm so happy!' I didn't expect this! I wasn't happy when I was young.

Parents are supposed to give the child back to herself with love. If they've got duct tape over their eyes because of narcissism, it doesn't happen.

I don't want to make a cheap analysis, but when you have, like I did, a father incapable of showing emotion, who spends his life telling you that no one will love you if you aren't perfect, it leaves scars.

The capacity of young people to persevere, even under the most adverse conditions, never ceases to amaze me.

If adolescent pregnancy prevention is to become a priority, then our strategy, as advocates, must contain two key elements: civic engagement and education.

what the right wing has done to Sheehan is despicable.

I knew that my newfound activism and feminism was going to improve my acting, because I was seeing things not just in very narrow, individual, kind of Freudian terms, but seeing them in a much broader, societal way that was going to deepen and enrich my talent.

My identity depended on men for so long. You can be successful and still have the feeling that if you're not with a man you don't exist.

What's totally terrifying is that, unlike a musician who has a musical instrument, or a painter that's got a canvas and a brush, acting is us. Our energy, our soul, our spirits. And it's so hard because it's so vul­nerable. You're exposing everything.

I found that you're more powerful when talking from your soul.

We need women friends, women who challenge us. I have chosen not to have any more plastic surgery. Sally Field and I have kind of made a pact about that. It's really hard, especially if you're a public person. But I want to give a face to aging.

Good enough is good enough. We're not supposed to be perfect. We're supposed to be complete.

I left acting for 15 years, and I think it's really nice to have another life. I took too much for granted when I was younger.

When you're told to be good, you have to get rid of whatever is bad. I sure identify with that.

When you're an older woman [in a movie], you are the brunt of the joke.

I'd like to think that I have integrity.

One of the wonderful things about being an actor is that every director is different.

If I can change, anybody can change.

I've worked really, really hard on myself to not be judgmental.

Studios weren't banging on my door to offer me parts... And I thought, well how am I ever going to make movies that speak to my heart and to my values?

Movies are collective, cooperative endeavours, which I like a lot. But writing is all up to you, it's what's so scary; it's just you and that page. But I really like it a lot.

Mostly actors are progressive because we are accustomed to all the nuances of human life, whereas dictators just try to flatten it all out. So we usually try to stand up to dictators like, well, we won't mention names.

I hate to create cynicism about politicians. We just need to invade. Regular people need to run for office and keep their balls and ovaries intact.

Think of anger as a muscle. The way you express anger isn't the way that I do, or you. If you have a good director, you will find that he's getting you to use an entirely different muscle that you never even knew you had - it's real hard and sore, then after a while it becomes normal. And you discover all these new muscles when you enter a new character - that's what a director does for you.

I never would've imagined in the first part of my life that I could've stood up and said anything. The war in Vietnam changed me. I was so angry. Some of my speeches probably weren't well considered.

When I was in my 40s was I simply produced my own movies because no one offered me anything. But certainly after 50 it's hard for a woman, which is why television is such a welcoming thing.

When you know in your heart why you did something, and you feel and you know that in spite of all the controversy that it was right, doesn't matter.

I wasn't pretty enough to be the pretty girl and I wasn't unattract­ive enough to be the dorky girl.

That's what we're all doing: paving the way, finding the roles that have the complication instead of the one that's always got it together or the dedicated housewife or the wild one who smokes cigarettes and sleeps with anybody.

So much is made of good, strong roles for women. Actually, it's really interesting playing vul­nerable people as well.

"Strong" to people means "real." It means you believe that's a person who exists, as opposed to some two-dimensional depiction of women.

There are no shortcuts and no sweatless quickies.

The secret of losing weight is patience.

Pay more attention to losing inches than losing pounds.

Find the balance between the calories you take in and the ones you burn up.

An exercise outfit helps because it sets this time apart from the rest of your day and makes it matter more.

You must decrease the amount of food you eat and increase the amount of exercise you get. That is all there is to it.

Food is more than a matter of taste-it is the fuel for our bodies.

Eat only when you are hungry-not because it is one o'clock or seven o'clock or whatever.

When food becomes the enemy, every time we lose the fight we not only gain weight, but lose our self-esteem as well.

Declare a truce and accept food as a life-giving friend.

The woman who respects the needs of her body will junk the junk food.

I always carry yeast flakes and bran with me when I travel.

Drink water between meals instead of with them so that the digestive juices will not be diluted.

In this country, the only way a minority can get anything done is to make a little noise.

My mother killed herself when I was 12. I won't complete that relationship. But I can try to understand her.

I think the entire world is going to be united against us.

I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New England, but to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of the things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm...very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families.

To make the revolution in the United States is a slow day by day job that requires patience and discipline. It is the only way to make it. . . . All I know is that despite the fact that I am one of the people who benefit from a capitalist society, I find that any system which exploits other people cannot and should not exist.

We've got to establish a Socialist economic structure that will limit private profit-oriented businesses. Whether the transition is peaceful depends on the way our present governmental leaders react. We must commit our lives to this transition ...... We should be very proud of our new breed of soldier. It's not organized but it's mutiny, and they have every right.

I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft carrier [actually, it was in an anti-aircraft gun emplacement, not a carrier], which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes. [Actually, that was her intention in posing for the photograph the way she did.] It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless.

It's hard for women at my age in Hollywood, but I'm not discouraged.

The reality is sobering: in the United States one in three girls will become pregnant before age 20, totaling more than 750,000 girls per year.

We can no longer waste time and money. Every day, more than 2,000 girls in America, age 15-19, give birth - in the wealthiest, most educated nation in the world! Neither you nor I should accept this statistic.

Adult women, all of us, have to come to grips with how we have been affected by gender norms, and how we have been silenced. We have to help our daughters. Understanding it within ourselves and helping our young girls stand up for themselves is one way.

People think actresses find public speaking easy, and it's not easy at all; we're used to hiding behind masks.

Revolution is an act of love; we are the children of revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our blood.

Seven Guidelines For a Healthy Diet 1. Substitute low-fat foods for high-fat foods 2. Cut down on meat-eat low on the food chain 3. Avoid salty and sugary foods 4. Cut down on sugar 5. Emphasize whole grains 6. Beware of alcohol 7. Emphasize the Healthy Five: Raw unsalted nuts and sesame seeds Sprouted seeds such as soybeans Fresh raw wheat bran and wheat germ Yogurt and kefir Fresh fruits and vegetables

I am convinced that we become what we do.

The more you treat yourself positively, the less you'll want or need to be negative.

It is never too late to master your weaknesses.

If our work is stimulating and rewarding, if it pushes us to grow...we become more valuable human beings.

Good physical condition is protection. Our strength comes from our body.

Most of us want to be strong, but we are not.

During my first few weeks in Hollywood, I was told that Jack Warner, the head of the studio, did not believe that a small-breasted woman could become a star.

My life is a stairway to heaven, not a 'decline into decrepitude.

You are being used as cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism.

I'm a very brave person. I can go to North Vietnam, I can challenge my government, but I can't challenge the man I'm with if means I'm going to end up alone.

Your goal should be to take your body and make it as healthy, strong, flexible and well-proportioned as you can.

Whatever kind of workout you settle on, it should include the Big Three of exercise for health and fitness-aerobics, resistance exercises, and stretching.

I love films that make you feel good when you come out and, in my opinion, there's not enough of them these days.

I feel like when I was an adolescent, and felt so unworthy of love and so empty, I moved outside of myself.

I always had a penchant for falling in love. Every time I found myself without a mate, I fell into a state of low-sizzling panic.

Emotionality is really easy for me. My father always said that Fondas can cry at a good steak.

Ted needs someone to be there 100% of the time. He thinks that's love. It's not love - it's babysitting.

In my marriages, I'd lost parts of who I was because I was trying to mold myself into what I thought a man wanted me to be.

I find that arduous physical labor can jump-start my thought process.

When you can't remember why you're hurt, that's when you're healed.

I grew up with a deep belief that wherever our troops fought, they were on the side of the angels.

I don't want my wrinkles taken away - I don't want to look like everyone else.

The bond between a parent and child is the primary bond, the foundation for the rest of the child's life. The presence or absence of this bond determines much about the child's resiliency and what kind of adult they will grow up to be.