Top 35 Shirley Temple Quotes

Nothing crushes freedom as substantially as a tank.

Many people consider me an old friend.

I had had enough pretend. I wanted to be in the real world.

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.

By the time I got to the Fox studio for my first major film, I knew how to hit a mark. I knew how to memorize lines. I knew how to pay attention.

The U.N. acts as the world’s conscience, and over eighty-five percent of the work that is done by the United Nations is in the social, economic, educational and cultural fields.

When I asked my mother why crowds shouted my name and said ‘We love you,’ she would dust it off by saying, ‘Your work makes them happy.’ She never let it go to my head.

If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t change anything. I probably would have paid for the pleasure of working.

There are many of us who should be in a position to bring peace to the world.

Make-believe colors the past with innocent distortion, and it swirls ahead of us in a thousand ways in science, in politics, in every bold intention.

When I was 14, I was the oldest I ever was. I’ve been getting younger ever since.

I ran for Congress, just once.

Men say, ‘I’ve loved you since I was 7 years old,’ and I say, ‘Well, you never contacted me.’ And very often women say, ‘Do youuuuuu know what I have?’ and I want to say, ‘Yessssssss, I do.’ Because inevitably the answer is, ‘An original Shirley Temple doll.’

Biographies of me have usually been compiled from old newspaper clips, untruthful publicity stories, and reminiscences of people who claim to have known me well.

The idea of being with my peers at a real school seemed much more exciting than making movies.

Politicians are actors, too, don’t you think? Usually, if you like people and you’re outgoing, not a shy little thing, you can do pretty well in politics.

I work a seventeen hour day, and I’m personally responsible for 108 staff members in the embassy.

I did an imitation of him to make the crew laugh. To my shock, there was Cary Grant behind me. He got very angry. I was sent all the way from RKO to David Selznick’s office and was told not to do it anymore. I thought to myself, ‘I must have been pretty good to make him that angry.’

I’m not too proud of the movies I made as a grownup except for ‘That Hagen Girl’, which nobody remembers but which gave me a chance to act.

Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.

Shirley Temple doesn’t hurt Shirley Temple Black. Shirley Temple helps Shirley Temple Black. She is thought of as a friend – which I am!

I’ve led three lives: the acting part, wife and mother – which is a career – and international relations. I’m proud of my career, the first one, and I’m proud of the other two, too.

Long ago, I became more interested in the real world than in make-believe.

I have always told anyone who would listen that I was available for more public service.

Time is money. Wasted time means wasted money means trouble.

Shirley Temple opens doors for Shirley Temple Black.

I was absolutely bathed in love. I was so young, starting at age 3, that working seemed very normal. I thought everybody went to work.

When you’re a performer, you have to please a large audience. And when you’re in politics, you have to please a large audience, too.

I remember telling President Carter on his first night, when I was escorting people around, that I was interested in continuing public service and that politics didn’t matter – but it does, doesn’t it?

Dr. Kissinger was a former child. Jerry Ford was a former child. Even F.D.R. was a former child. I retired from the movies in 1949, and I’m still a former child.

I was in Vienna in August 1968 for a meeting of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies, of which I was co-founder, and we wanted a 20th country to join. They asked for a volunteer to go to Prague to get Czechoslovakia to do it, and my hand always goes up first.

I loved what I did. I remember cruel mothers who would pinch their children to make them cry in a scene, but my mother encircled me with affection.

I wanted to be in the FBI. I also wanted to be a pie salesman.

I’ve always been bossy.

I’ve been blessed with three wonderful careers: motion pictures and television, wife, mother and grandmother… and diplomatic services for the United States government.