Helen Hayes Quotes

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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