As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
On the one hand maybe I’ve remained infantile, while on the other I matured quickly, because at a young age I was very aware of suffering and fear.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the duality of personal growth and the preservation of innocence shaped by early experiences of suffering and fear.
In this quote, Audrey Hepburn expresses a complex relationship with her own development as a person. She acknowledges that while she might still possess childlike qualities, her early encounters with life's hardships instilled in her a maturity that belies her age. This juxtaposition highlights the ways in which life experiences, particularly those involving pain and challenge, can influence one's growth and perspective, leading to a unique blend of innocence and wisdom.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, you can use this quote to illustrate how challenges can lead to personal growth.
More from Audrey Hepburn
All quotes →If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy-tales and I like them best of all.
True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
This is what you do on your very first day in Paris. You get yourself, not a drizzle, but some honest-to-goodness rain, and you find yourself someone really nice and drive her through the Bois de Boulogne in a taxi. The rain's very important. That's when Paris smells its sweetest. It's the damp chestnut trees.
I speak for those children who cannot speak for themselves, children who have absolutely nothing but their courage and their smiles, their wits and their dreams.
Good things aren't supposed to just fall into your lap. God is very generous, but He expects you to do your part first.
Similar quotes
Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.
The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play _x000D_ And in one word, just nothing.
This is who I am: a flyspeck of human vanity in a trillion miles of stone-dead interstellar space; a graceless lump of flesh and fear in a remote desert where nearly everything that I can see or touch is designed to hurt me.
The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time.
The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.
Name the different kinds of people,’ said Miss Lupescu. ‘Now.’ Bod thought for a moment. ‘The living,’ he said. ‘Er. The dead.’ He stopped. Then, ‘... Cats?’ he offered, uncertainly.