Quotes by Walt Disney
Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Walt Disney. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor, and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks, Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the latter of which received five Academy Awards.
In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in July 1955 he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. To fund the project he diversified into television programs, such as Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club; he was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1965, he began development of another theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed.
Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private but adopted a warm and outgoing public persona. He had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-Semitic, they have been contradicted by many who knew him. His reputation changed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism. He nevertheless remains an important figure in the history of animation and in the cultural history of the United States, where he is considered a national cultural icon. His film work continues to be shown and adapted; his namesake studio and company maintains high standards in its production of popular entertainment, and the Disney amusement parks have grown in size and number to attract visitors in several countries.
You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul.

You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it requires people to make the dream a reality.

Any fool can make a lot of noise. But it takes a strong bull to go his own way and forget the things those bullies say.

What seems real to the mind can be as important as any material fact. We live by the spirit and the imagination as well as by our senses. Cartoon animation can give fantasy the same reality as those things we can touch and see and hear.

I take great pride in the artistic development of cartoons. Our characters are made to go through emotions.

I am in no sense of the word a great artist, not even a great animator; I have always had men working for me whose skills were greater than my own. I am an idea man.

Do a good job. You don't have to worry about the money; it will take care of itself. Just do your best work -- then try to trump it.

Disneyland is like a piece of clay: If there is something I don't like, I'm not stuck with it. I can reshape and revamp.

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.

I have watched constantly that in our work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether my productions deal with fable or with stories of living action.

The inclination of my life...has been to do things and make things which will give pleasure to people in new and amazing ways.

I happen to be kind of an inquisitive guy and when I see things I don't like, I start thinking, why do they have to be like this and how can I improve them?

I don't pose as an authority on anything at all, I follow the opinions of the ordinary people I meet, and I take pride in the close-knit teamwork with my organization.

Today, we are shapers of the world of tomorrow. That is plain truth. There is no way we can duck the responsibility, and there is no reason why we should.

To the youngsters of today, I say Believe in the future, the world is getting better; there still is plenty of opportunity. Why, would you believe it, when I was a kid I thought it was already too late for me to make good at anything.

Until a character becomes a personality it cannot be believed. Without personality, the character may do funny or interesting things, but unless people are able to identify themselves with the character, its actions will seem unreal. And without personality, a story cannot ring true to the audience.

Part of the Disney success is our ability to create a believable world of dreams that appeals to all age groups. The kind of entertainment we create is meant to appeal to every member of the family.

I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral.

In our animation we must show only the actions and reactions of a character, but we must picture also with the action... the feeling of those characters.

You know, the only way I've found to make these pictures is with animators. You can't seem to do it with accountants and bookkeepers.

A good concert, if you're kind of relaxed, it can do something to you. It's sort of an emotional break you get by listening to music.

Well I come from a land, from a far away place, where the caravan camels roam. They will cut of your ear if they don't like your face, it's babaric, but hey, it's home.

Childishness? I think it's the equivalent of never losing your sense of humor. I mean, yes there's a certain something that you retain. It's the equivalent of not getting so stuffy that you can't laugh at others.

Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry. He provided the means for expanding our organization to its present dimensions and for extending the medium of cartoon animation toward new entertainment levels. He spelled production liberation for us.

I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty.

Over at our place, we're sure of just one thing: everybody in the world was once a child. So in planning a new picture, we don't think of grown-ups, and we don't think of children. But just of that fine, clean, unspoiled spot down deep in every one of us, that maybe the world has made us forget.

She believed in dreams, all right, but she also believed in doing something about them. When Prince Charming didn't come along, she went over to the palace and got him.

The most exciting and, by far, the most important part of our Florida project, in fact, the heart of everything well be doing in Disney World, will be our experimental prototype city of tomorrow. We call it EPCOT.

Disneyland will always be building and growing and adding new things... new ways of having fun, of learning things, and sharing the many exciting adventures which may be experienced here in the company of family and friends.

The important thing is the family. If you can keep the family together -- and that's the backbone of our whole business, catering to families -- that's what we hope to do.

I just make what I like -- warm and human stories, ones about historic characters and events, and about animals. If there is a secret, I guess it's that I never make the pictures too childish, but always try to get in a little satire of adult foibles.

A good ending is vital to a picture, the single most important element, because it is what the audience takes with them out of the theater.

The immediate need for education and practice in using our natural resources of soil, forest, water, wildlife and areas of inspirational beauty to the best advantage of all, for this generation and others to come, is again apparent to every observant citizen.

God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

I think you have to know these fellows definitely before you can draw them. When you start to caricature a person,you can't do it without knowing the person. Take Laurel and Hardy for example; everybody can see Laurel doing certain things because they know Laurel.

Disneyland is often called a magic kingdom because it combines fantasy and history, adventure and learning, together with every variety of recreation and fun designed to appeal to everyone.

Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

The fun is in always building something. After it's built, you play with it awhile and then you're through. You see, we never do the same thing twice around here. We're always opening up new doors.

I have never been interested in personal gain or profit. This business and this studio have been my entire life.

The sky has never been the limit. We are our own limits. It's then about breaking our personal limits and outgrowing ourselves to live our best lives.
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me.

In my view, wholesome pleasure, sport, and recreation are as vital to this nation as productive work and should have a large share in the national budget.

To me, today, at age sixty-one, all prayer, by the humble or highly placed, has one thing in common: supplication for strength and inspiration to carry on the best human impulses which should bind us together for a better world.

Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.

Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.

I do not want to make teaching films. If I did, I would create a separate organization. It is not higher education that interests me so much as general mass education.

Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows.

I just want to leave you with this thought, that it's just been sort of a dress rehearsal, and we're just getting started. So if any of you start resting on your laurels, I mean just forget it, because...we are just getting started.

It is good to have a failure while you're young because it teaches you so much. For one thing it makes you aware that such a thing can happen to anybody, and once you've lived through the worst, you're never quite as vulnerable afterward.

It is a curious thing that the more the world shrinks because of electronic communications, the more limitless becomes the province of the storytelling entertainer.

A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request; at the highest level, prayer not only is a supplication for strength and guidance, but also becomes an affirmation of life and thus a reverent praise of God.

The life and ventures of Mickey Mouse have been closely bound up with my own personal and professional life.

We like to have a point of view in our stories, not an obvious moral, but a worthwhile theme. ... All we are trying to do is give the public good entertainment. That is all they want.

Sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen and sort of stimulate everybody. I guess that's the job I do.

Well it took many years. I started with many ideas, threw them away, started all over again. And eventually it evolved into what you see today at Disneyland.

No one person can take credit for the success of a motion picture. It's strictly a team effort. From the time the story is written to the time the final release print comes off the printer, hundreds of people are involved -- each one doing a job -- each job contributing to the final product.

No matter what the provocation, I never fire a man who is honestly trying to deliver a job. Few workers who become established at the Disney Studio ever leave voluntarily or otherwise, and many have been on the payroll all their working lives.

In most instances, the driving force behind the action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character -- or all three. Therefore, the mind is the pilot. We think of things before the body does them.

What ever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.

Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.

I first saw the site for Disneyland back in 1953, In those days it was all flat land -- no rivers, no mountains, no castles or rocket ships -- just orange groves, and a few acres of walnut trees.

Here is adventure. Here is romance. Here is mystery. Tropical rivers -- silently flowing into the unknown. The unbelievable splendor of exotic flowers … the eerie sound of the jungle … with eyes that are always watching. This is Adventureland.

The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements, but rather with the things we do for others.

To be successful you must be unique, you must be so different that if people want what you have, they must come to you to get it.

The magic is as wide as a smile and as narrow as a wink, loud as laughter and quiet as a tear, tall as a tale and deep as emotion. So strong, it can lift the spirit. So gentle, it can touch the heart. It is the magic that begins the happily ever after.

Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it.

All right. I'm corny. But I think there's just about a-hundred-and-forty-million people in this country that are just as corny as I am.

People often ask me if I know the secret of success and if I could tell others how to make their dreams come true. My answer is, you do it by working.

Disneyland would be a world of Americans, past and present, seen through the eyes of my imagination -- a place of warmth and nostalgia, of illusion and color and delight.

It seems to me shallow and arrogant for any man in these times to claim he is completely self-made, that he owes all his success to his own unaided efforts. Many hands and hearts and minds generally contribute to anyone's notable achievements.

The secret of making dreams come true can be summarized in four C's.They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy; and the greatest of these is Confidence.

While the worriers are worrying, the planners are planning and the accountants are figuring out why we can't afford it, I'm busy getting started.

It feels good when it helps to get a good seat for a football game. But it never helped me make a good film or a good shot in a polo game, or command the obedience of my daughter. It doesn.

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.

All of our dreams can come true.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
All of our dreams can come true if we just have the courage to pursue them.

If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.

When I was poor living in a garage in Kansas I began to draw the mice that scampered over my desk. That is how Mickey Mouse was born.

Fantasy, if it's really convincing, can't become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.

I have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep them interested in things.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
I have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep them interested in things. Lecturing to children is no answer to delinquency. Preaching won't keep youngsters out of trouble, but keeping their minds occupied will.

Or heritage and ideals, our code and standards -- the things we live by and teach our children -- are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always thinking of what's wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

It's no secret that we were sticking just about every nickel we had on the chance that people would really be interested in something totally new and unique in the field of entertainment.

When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity.

We did it Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster -- closed and forgotten within the first year.

All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable.

I started, actually, to make my first animated cartoon in 1920. Of course, they were very crude things then and I used sort of little puppet things.

Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us.

People still think of me as a cartoonist, but the only thing I lift a pen or pencil for these days is to sign a contract, a check, or an autograph.

Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards -- the things we live by and teach our children -- are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, has strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Quotes by Walt Disney are featured in:
Courage Quotes
Creativity Quotes
Inspirational Quotes
Life Quotes
Motivational Quotes
Nature Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
Self-Discovery Quotes