16 Walt Disney Quotes on Family

Walt Disney quotes on family

37. I don't believe in playing down to children, either in life or in motion pictures. I didn't treat my own youngsters like fragile flowers, and I think no parent should. 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, and that is what our pictures attempt to do.

39. 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.

49. 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.

52. It's a mistake not to give people a chance to learn to depend on themselves while they are young.

61. A man should never neglect his family for business.

76. Fantasy, when properly done in the one medium best adapted to its nature, need never stale for the family taste.

81. I don't make films for children. I make films that children aren't embarrassed to take their parents to.

131. Other parks can have parades, they can have bands and thrill rides, and all that kind of stuff. But we have the Disney characters. Don't you realize how much they mean to people? A family comes into the park and they see one of our characters and they immediately have their child run over. They get their camera out and they take pictures of their little kids with Mickey or Minnie or Goofy or whoever happens to be there at the time. This is what people enjoy and this is what is important to us.

135. People are always analyzing our approach to entertainment. Some reporters have called it the 'Special Secret' of Disney entertainment. Well, we like a little mystery in our films, but there's really no secret about our approach. We're interested in doing things that are fun - in bringing pleasure and especially laughter to people. And we have never lost our faith in family entertainment - stories that make people laugh, stories about warm and human things, stories about historic characters and events, and stories about animals.

146. 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.

147. The inclination of my life - the motto, you might call it - has been to do things which will give pleasure to people in new and amusing ways. By doing that I please and satisfy myself. It is my wish to delight all members of the family, young and old, parent and child, in the kind of entertainment my associates and I turn out of our Studio in Burbank, California.

148. The kind of entertainment we create is meant to appeal to every member of the family.

165. We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun - together.

187. Disney World has acquired by now something of the air of a national shrine. American parents who don't take their children there sense obscurely that they have failed in some fundamental way, like Muslims who never made it to Mecca.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

191. Most family historians agree that Elias's authoritarian and sometimes cruel nature - and propensity for whipping and even beating his young sons - played a role in turning Walt and Roy against the church. The brothers' ambivalent relationship with organized religion is well documented, as is their strong, personal faith in God.

197. Walt Disney Family Museum