Sophia Loren citations

“Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.”

“I was blessed with a sense of my own destiny. I have never sold myself short. I have never judged myself by other people’s standards. I have always expected a great deal of myself, and if I fail, I fail myself.”

“I was not intrigued with the accouterments of success and fame, the furs, jewels, expensive automobiles and mansions… I can assure you that these things were not on my mind when I sat spellbound in that Pozzuoli movie house. It was what these performers on the screen were doing, not what they received for doing it.”

“A woman's dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”

“My philosophy is that it's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe and not to explore at all.”

“I don’t understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.”

“If you haven’t cried, your eyes cannot be beautiful.”

“You must all, somewhere deep in your hearts, believe that you have a special beauty that is like no other and that is so valuable that you must not abandon it. Indeed, you must learn to cherish it.”

“I firmly believe we can make our own miracles if we believe strongly enough in ourselves and our mission on earth.”

“I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful.”

“Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.”

“Being beautiful can never hurt, but you have to have more. You have to sparkle, you have to be fun, you have to make your brain work if you have one.”

“After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.”

“I was born wise. Street-wise, people-wise, self-wise. This wisdom was my birthright. I was also born old. And illegitimate. But the two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.”

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will have truly defeated age.”

“Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.”

“You have to believe in marriage and you have to believe in a relationship between two people. If you really think in your life that you have found the right person, you have to stick to it, even though there are ups and downs. If you really believe in your union, you have to nourish it and work for it, then you can really spend your life together forever.”

“Isn’t it wonderful to be alive? You know, you can forget all about it. Then suddenly you remember, and think of all the things you can do. Here I am. I can walk around. I can talk. I can see things and remember things. I am alive. How wonderful!”

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. You are connected to your child and to all those who touch your lives. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”

“You have to enjoy life. Always be surrounded by people that you like, people who have a nice conversation. There are so many positive things to think about.”

“True happiness is impossible without solitude…. I need solitude in my life as I need food and drink and the laughter of little children. Extravagant though it may sound, solitude is the filter of my soul. It nourishes me, and rejuvenates me. Left alone, I discovered that I keep myself good company.”

“Food makes people happy, it takes you back home, it says so many things that words can’t say.”

“My mother taught me the most important principles, to be determined in life, to be disciplined, to be able to understand that there are some things that you can’t do and other things you have to do, that you always have to be surrounded by love, that you have to be understanding.”

“Discipline is the great equalizer. If a young woman is beautiful but has no discipline, she will lose her looks as she grows older. If a plain woman is disciplined she will undoubtedly become more beautiful with time.”

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

“Being beautiful can never hurt, but you have to have more. You have to sparkle, you have to be fun, you have to make your brain work if you have one.”

“Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent.”

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

“Ignorance has its virtues; without it there’d be mighty little conversation.”