Top 40 Shirley Temple Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Time is money. Wasted time means wasted money means trouble.”

— Shirley Temple

2. “Don’t forget to tell your favorite people that you love them.”

— Shirley Temple

3. “There’s nothing like real love. Nothing.”

— Shirley Temple

4. “Be brave and clear. Follow your heart and don’t be overly influenced by outside factors. Be true to yourself.”

— Shirley Temple

5. “Good luck needs no explanation.”

— Shirley Temple

6. “I’ve always been bossy.”

— Shirley Temple

7. “Intentions often melt in the face of unexpected opportunity.”

— Shirley Temple

8. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

9. “Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle.”

— Shirley Temple

10. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

11. “Visiting old haunts is hard on memory. Things shrink, change, and disappear.”

— Shirley Temple

12. “I liked work shoes and big, working-class hands. The stars would come and go, but the crew on my movies was my extended family.”

— Shirley Temple

13. “I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award: Start early!”

— Shirley Temple

14. “In the world of movie personalities the distance between popularity and politics is short.”

— Shirley Temple

15. “I ran for Congress, just once.”

— Shirley Temple

16. “My Chicken can do a special trick! “And what is that?” She can lay an egg! “And what’s so special about THAT?!” Well, Can YOU lay an egg?”

— Shirley Temple

17. “We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black.”

— Shirley Temple

18. “Our whole way of life today is dedicated to the removal of risk. Cradle to grave we are supported, insulated, and isolated from the risks of life – and if we fail, our government stands ready with Bandaids of every size.”

— Shirley Temple

19. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

20. “If you hear someone scream, you shouldn’t close the drapes. You should help. You’ve got to try.”

— Shirley Temple

21. “I’ve been so blessed. If someone asked me whom I would choose to be if I could come back in another life, I would have to say Shirley Temple Black. I cannot think of a more interesting life to ask for.”

— Shirley Temple

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

— Shirley Temple

23. “Nothing crushes freedom as substantially as a tank.”

— Shirley Temple

24. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

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

— Shirley Temple

26. “My mother made it seem perfectly normal for thousands of people to be cheering me, as if there was nothing special going on. I thought all children must live as I did.”

— Shirley Temple

27. “Some people liked Rudolph Valentino. I liked Rin Tin Tin.”

— Shirley Temple

28. “You’ve got to S-M-I-L-E To be H-A-Double-P-Y.”

— Shirley Temple

29. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

30. “By the time I was 4, I knew how to hit my mark.”

— Shirley Temple

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

— Shirley Temple

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

— Shirley Temple

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

— Shirley Temple

34. “I don’t like to do negatives. There are always pluses to things.”

— Shirley Temple

35. “Many people consider me an old friend.”

— Shirley Temple

36. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

37. “Sunnybrook Farm is now a parking lot; the petticoats are in the garbage can, where they belong in the modern world; and I detest censorship.”

— Shirley Temple

38. “I guess I was an early method actress. I would go to a quiet part of the sound stage with my mother. I wouldn’t think of anything sad, I would just make my mind a blank. In a minute I could cry.”

— Shirley Temple

39. “Dr. Kissinger was surprised that I knew where Ghana was.”

— Shirley Temple

40. “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.”

— Shirley Temple

41. “I had a very close family and I couldn’t get away with anything.”

— Shirley Temple

42. “Movies mirror the times, they do not create them.”

— Shirley Temple

43. “Won’t the new ‘Suggested for Mature Audience’ protect our youngsters from such films? I don’t believe so. I know many forty-five-year old men with the mentalities of six-year-olds, and my feeling is that they should not see such pictures, either.”

— Shirley Temple

44. “Delay and indecision are first weapons in the armory of moviemakers.”

— Shirley Temple