"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone"
About this Quote
The subtext is a quiet rebuke to a consumer culture that treats relationships the way it treats products: upgrade when inconvenient, discard when messy. Hepburn’s “never throw out anyone” reads simple, even sentimental, until you notice how absolute it is. It doesn’t offer the usual escape hatches: not “when they’ve earned it,” not “when it’s easy,” not “when you can afford the emotional labor.” She’s insisting that worth isn’t performance-based.
Context sharpens the edge. Hepburn wasn’t just a screen icon selling elegance; she was a wartime child in Nazi-occupied Netherlands and later a UNICEF humanitarian. She’d seen, firsthand, how quickly societies decide certain lives are expendable, and how survival often depends on someone refusing that logic. The quote also functions as a self-check against celebrity’s churn: the industry that makes stars can be ruthless about aging, scandal, and “marketability.” Hepburn’s intent feels like a manifesto against disposability, delivered in the softest possible voice so it can slip past our defenses and land as a standard we can’t easily argue with.
Quote Details
| Topic | Forgiveness |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hepburn, Audrey. (2026, January 18). People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-even-more-than-things-have-to-be-restored-4439/
Chicago Style
Hepburn, Audrey. "People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-even-more-than-things-have-to-be-restored-4439/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-even-more-than-things-have-to-be-restored-4439/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.









