Words of Wisdom: Katherine Hepburn

Bold, confidant, and beautiful - Katherine Hepburn was a woman before her time. With swagger and wit, she carved out for herself a career during a time when a woman was supposed to merely follow the prescribed path. With her sharp slacks, dramatic demeanor and that breathy, enigmatic voice, she carved herself into an icon, and her memorable words are as potent as the memory she left on our cultural psyche.

“As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.”

"Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking."

"Never complain. Never explain."

"Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer."

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased."

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."

"Enemies are so stimulating."

"To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time."

“As one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move.”

"We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change."

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving."

"Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about."

"Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do."

"If you’re given a choice between money and sex appeal, take the money. As you get older, the money will become your sex appeal."

"Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got to not forget to laugh."

"If you survive long enough, you're revered - rather like an old building."

"There are no laurels in life ... just new challenges."

"It’s life isn’t it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels."

"Life is hard. After all, it kills you."

"I don't think that work ever really destroyed anybody. I think that lack of work destroys them a hell of a lot more."

"I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky."

"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around."

"I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun."