100 Famous Marilyn Monroe Quotes That Still Inspire Us Today

Quick Facts

Counted among the most beautiful women of all time in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe is also considered as one of the actresses with the highest level of fame. Also a model and singer, she was most popular for portraying comedic “blonde bombshell” characters as a result of which she became one of the 1950s and early 1960s’ most famous sex symbols. Even though she died at a very young age of 36 in 1962, her footprints are still very much visible in the movie industry. Apart from knowing her onus in acting, the star actress was also known to possess deep intelligence and these Marilyn Monroe quotes below prove this, read and get inspired!

100 Famous Marilyn Monroe Quotes That Still Inspire Us Today

1. A woman can’t be alone. She needs a man. A man and a woman support and strengthen each other. She just can’t do it by herself.

2. First, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.

3. Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations but it also has its drawbacks, and I’ve experienced them both.

4. If I play a stupid girl and ask a stupid question, I’ve got to follow it through, what am I supposed to do, look intelligent?

5. I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

6. Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right answer?

7. You might as well make yourself fly as to make yourself love.

8. For those who are poor in happiness, each time is a first time; happiness never becomes a habit.

9. For life: it is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: the truth can only be recalled, never invented.

10. A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows that she has none.”

11. In Hollywood, a girl’s virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You’re judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood’s a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty.

12. This life is what you make it. No matter what, you’re going to mess up sometimes, it’s a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you’re going to mess it up.

13. Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

14. It’s far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.

15. It’s often just enough to be with someone. I don’t need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You’re not alone.”

16. Sex is part of nature. I go along with nature.

17. That’s the way you feel when you’re beaten inside. You don’t feel angry at those who’ve beaten you. You just feel ashamed.

18. Most men judge your importance in their lives by how much you can hurt them.

19. I’m trying to find the nailhead, not just strike the blow.

20. A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

21. I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it

22. With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else’s ideas about you, but what’s important is how you feel about yourself – for survival and living day to day with what comes up.

23. I think that sexuality is only attractive when it’s natural and spontaneous.

24. I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot!

25. Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

26. How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.

27. Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.

28. I don’t forgive people because I’m weak, I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.

29. Men are climbing to the moon, but they don’t seem interested in the beating human heart.

30. When you’re young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Wednesday you’re laughing again.

31. Everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like a sort of chunk out of you. I don’t think they realize it, but it’s like ‘grrr do this, grr do that…’But you do want to stay intact and on two feet.

32. I want to grow old without facelifts… I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.

33. A man is more frank and sincere with his emotions than a woman. We girls, I’m afraid, have a tendency to hide our feelings.

34. Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.

35. In spite of everything, life is not without hope.

36. Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.

37. Looking back, I guess I used to play-act all the time. For one thing, it meant I could live in a more interesting world than the one around me.

38. Please quote me right!

39. It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.

40. Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.

41. I always felt insecure and in the way, but most of all I felt scared. I guess I wanted love more than anything else in the world.

42. Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.

43. My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation but I’m working on the foundation.

44. If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.

45. A girl doesn’t need anyone that doesn’t need her.

46. What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.

47. Maybe I’ll never be able to do what I hope to, but at least I have hope.

48. I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.

49. Acting isn’t something you do. Instead of doing it, it occurs. If you’re going to start with logic, you might as well give up. You can have conscious preparation, but you have unconscious results.

50. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.

51. If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.”

52. No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they’re pretty, even if they aren’t.

53. I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

54. I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead, they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t.

55. The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

56. “Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn’t catch their eye they won’t bother to read what’s inside.

57. Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them

58. Anything’s possible, almost.

59. I love a natural look in pictures. I like people with a feeling one way or another — it shows an inner life. I like to see that there’s something going on inside them.

60. Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.

61. Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer.

62. I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.

63. I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

64. It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.

65. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

66. Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.

67. I’ve often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.

68. “This is supposed to be an art form, not just a manufacturing establishment. The sensitivity that helps me to act, you see, also makes me react. An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

69. Anything’s possible, almost.

70. The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.

71. Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn’t that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

72. Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?

73. I’m a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they’ve made of me– and that I’ve made of myself– as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman’s and I can’t live up to it.

74. I love to do the things the censors won’t pass.

75. I don’t mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. Beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won’t like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it’s based on femininity.

76. Who said nights were for sleep?

77. I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.

78. I never wanted to be Marilyn — it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.

79. The ‘public’ scares me, but people I trust.

80. It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

81. Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, Fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle.

82. I won’t be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn’t mean I want them to stop looking.

83. A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.

84. When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I’m already better than them.

85. I don’t stop when I’m tired. I only stop when I’m done.

86. It’s all make-believe, isn’t it?

87. People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.

88. It’s not too much fun to know yourself too well or think you do — everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through and past the falls.

89. It’s all make-believe, isn’t it?

90. A friend tells you what you want to hear; a best friend tells you the truth.

91. The most unsatisfactory men are those who pride themselves on their virility and regard sex as if it were some form of athletics at which you can win cups. It is a woman’s spirit and mood a man has to stimulate in order to make sex interesting. The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes or by just staring into space.

92. I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

93. I don’t mind living in a man’s world, as long as I can be a woman in it.

94. I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.

95. All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.

96. I read poetry to save time.

97. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

98. This is a free and democratic country and no one has a monopoly on anything.

99. Dogs never bite me. Just humans.

100. This life is what you make it. No matter what, you’re going to mess up sometimes, it’s a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you’re going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends – they’ll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything – they’re your true best friends. Don’t let go of them.

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