The Ugly Duckling Quotes & Sayings

The world may see you as an ugly duckling, but God sees you as a magnificent swan. — Matshona Dhliwayo

The woman must look like the weathered side of a rotted fence post if she had to get a man this way. — Lindsey Brookes

Unsettled, a bird lost from the flock --
Keeps flying by itself in the dusk.
Back and forth, it has no resting place,
Night after night, more anguished its cries.
Its shrill sound yearns for the pure and distant --
Coming from afar, how anxiously it flutters!

It chances to find a pine tree growing all apart;
Folding its wings, it has come home at last.
In the gusty wind there is no dense growth;
This canopy alone does not decay.
Having found a perch to roost on,
In a thousand years it will not depart. — Tao Yuanming

The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It's not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it's about self-revelation, becoming who you are. — Baz Luhrmann

On the one hand, I always get the young ingenue, pretty parts. But I don't think of myself that way because I was an ugly duckling when I was growing up. I have to be reminded when I play a part sometimes that I'm playing the pretty girl. — Amy Carlson

Elaine slowly transformed from the proverbial ugly duckling into a swan. — Mike Wells

Guurl. Tell me. Do you keep your hair this long for religious reasons? Like, will you lose your strength if you cut it?--Terry, a member of the glam squad, to Khloe Richardson — Naima Simone

I was always the ugly duckling; I never got attention from girls. — Kid Cudi

I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the Ugly Duckling! — Hans Christian Andersen

Santa Claus was white and everything bad was black. The little ugly duckling was the black duck, and the black cat was the bad luck. And if I threaten you, I'm going to blackmail you.I said, 'Momma, why don't they call it 'whitemail'? They lie too.' — Muhammad Ali

The Ugly Duckling The classic story by Hans Christian — Hans Christian Andersen

Fate cast me to play the role of an ugly duckling with no promise of swanning ... I have played my life as a comedy rather than the tragedy many would have made of it. — Marie Dressler

There's no need to curse God if you're an ugly duckling. He chooses those strong enough to endure it so that they can guide others who've felt the same. — Criss Jami

In the story of Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized that he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do but splash around, treading water? The Wise are Who They Are. They work with what they've got and do what they can do. — Benjamin Hoff

I was the ugly duckling until I reached puberty. — Tanya Roberts

In Santa Fe her whole yard had been crowded with different-sized terra-cotta pots, out of which she grew everything from rosemary and lavender to ornamental pear and plum trees and even peppers, although they were not particularly popular with the bees.
In Colorado she'd created a fertile oasis out of old gas cans and cut-off oil drums. Her neighbors had been skeptical to begin with but once her creepers grew up and her flowers draped down and her shrubs fluffed out, the junkyard ugly duckling was transformed into the proverbial backyard swan. — Sarah-Kate Lynch

When I was very young I was the ugly duckling. I had a lot of complexes. My sister was wonderful and I was nothing. — Nana Mouskouri

In Los Angeles, I feel like the ugly duckling, like I'm from Venus or something. — Eva Green

Fair warning, baby. I'm in the mood for a fight, and I wouldn't play fair or nice.--Niall Hunter to Khloe Richardson — Naima Simone

I was born an ugly duckling due to my mother's ill health. She wasn't supposed to be pregnant, there were all kinds of complications, she couldn't survive a cesarean section etc. She said, "They didn't hand me a child, they handed me a purple melon." I heard that when I had grown up and had no idea of the whole story because the family album had pictures of a covered carriage and my mother smiling so I assumed I was asleep. — Bernie Siegel

I tell him the ugly duckling grew up to be a huge asshole." "Why? — Alex Flinn

Sometimes it seems that half of the fairy tales of the world are some form of Cinderella, ugly duckling, or poor boy story, telling of the little person who has no power or possessions who ends up being king or queen, prince or princess. We write it off as wishful dreaming, when it is actually the foundational pattern of disguise or amnesia, loss, and recovery. Every Beauty is sleeping, it seems, before it can meet its Prince. The duckling must be "ugly," or there will be no story. The knight errant must be wounded, or he will never even know what the Holy Grail is, much less find it. Jesus must be crucified, or there can be no resurrection. It is written in our hardwiring, but can only be heard at the soul level. It will usually be resisted and opposed at the ego level. — Richard Rohr

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems. — Maeve Binchy

What influenced my style was the feeling that I was a lousy artist ... I was like the ugly duckling, not knowing what I was, style-wise, and thinking I was all on my own ... I evolved into a style that couldn't be compared to anyone else. — Jim Rowe

And while we're on the subject of ducks, which we plainly are, the story, 'The Ugly Duckling' ought be banned as the central character wasn't a duckling or he wouldn't have grown up into a swan. He was a cygnet. — Russell Brand

I grew up as the ugly duckling, they called me 'la prieta fea', which means ugly dark one - that was my nickname. — Eva Longoria

The thing about Janis is that she just looked so unique, an ugly duckling dressed as a princess, fearlessly so. Seeing her live was like watching a boxing match. Her performance was so in your face and electrifying that it really put you right there in the moment. There you were living your nice little life in the suburbs and suddenly there was this train wreck, and it was Janis. — Chrissie Hynde

It would just be like a movie makeover montage, pop music scoring the ugly girl's transformation from bespectacled duckling to cheerleader swan. — Leila Sales

Ugly ducklings don't turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make. — Bonnie Raitt

It's funny how the ugly duckling always has so many beautiful things to teach us. — Curtis Tyrone Jones

What I am fucking tired of is seeing you hide behind dull clothes shaped like tents and sacks because you're afraid of being noticed. Like you're trying to disappear. And that's a damn crime. Screw this Bennett. I could give two fucks about Bennett. This is about you. About you seeing the beauty you are so maybe others will, too.--Niall Hunter to Khloe Richardson — Naima Simone

My story wasn't one of those cliched stories of being an ugly duckling, I had a pretty good time at school. But then I think being six foot by the age of 15 meant that I couldn't help but be noticed, and that was when my physical being felt quite painful - I could not any longer walk into a room without being noticed. — Erin O'Connor

My duchess," James stated, his eyes sweeping the crowd with the air of a man who has ruled the waves. "She is not a swan, because that would imply she had once been an ugly duckling. — Eloisa James

There's something almost perfect in the ugly duckling syndrome. Because a sensitivity is tattooed on a part of you no one else can see but can somehow guess is there. — Stephanie Klein

I grew up feeling like the ugly duckling, and things have not changed that much. — Nicollette Sheridan

I still had this idea that there was a whole world of marvelous golden people somewhere, as far ahead of me as the seniors at Rye when I was in the sixth grade; people who knew everything instinctively, who made their lives work out the way they wanted without even trying, who never had to make the best of a bad job because it never occured to them to do anything less then perfectly the first time. Sort of heroic super-people, all of them beautiful and witty and calm and kind, and I always imagined that when I did find them I'd suddenly know that I Belonged among them, that I was one of them, that I'd been meant to be one of them all along, and everything in teh meantime had been a mistake; and they'd know it too. I'd be like the ugly duckling among the swans. — Richard Yates

I always believed I was an ugly duckling in a family of swans, you know? I was such a black sheep, and it was the same way in high school ... I was just kind of that awkward theater kid with a bunch of athletes ... it was very 'Glee.' — Lindsay Pearce

In my books, there is no 'ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan' syndrome because if you look at the Hansel and Gretel syndrome, it was a mistake. It wasn't a duckling, it was a cygnet, and that's why it turned into a swan. The duckling should with any luck turn into a nice clucking duck and get on with its life. Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! — Maeve Binchy

Nobody really metamorphoses. Cinderella is always Cinderella, just in a nicer dress. The Ugly Duckling was always a swan, just a smaller version. And I bet the tadpole and the caterpillar still feel the same, even when they're jumping and flying, swimming and floating.
Just like I am now. — Holly Smale

Prince Charles is the only member of the Royal Family who ever left Cinderella for the Ugly Duckling. — Des Hanafin

I have no idea! I have been writing for 35 years and from the beginning up to now the situation's almost the same. I'm kind of an ugly duckling. Always the duckling, never the swan. — Haruki Murakami