Helen Hayes Quotes

The expert at anything was once a beginner.

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

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.

Age is not important unless you're a cheese.

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

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

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

Always aim for achievement, and forget about success.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 books are opened, we discover that we have wings

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.

Legends die hard. They survive as truth rarely does.

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.

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.

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

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.

Childhood is a short season.