Marilyn Monroe whose original name was Norma Jeane Mortenson and later called Norma Jeane Baker was born on 1st June 1926 in Los Angeles California and died on 5th August 1962. Norma Jeane Mortenson later took her mum’s name, Baker. She had a challenging childhood – her mother was occasionally confined in an asylum and Monroe was reared by 12 successive foster parents and even in an orphanage.
Marilyn was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of the most iconic sex symbols of the 1950s and early 60s. Marilyn was famous for playing comedic “Blonde Bombshell.”
Marilyn was a top-billed actress, but for just a decade. However, her films grossed approximately $200 million by the time of her death, which would be equivalent to $2 billion currently. In 1999, she was ranked sixth on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female screen legends. Marilyn Monroe was gifted with great intelligence and she left us some of the greatest quotes of all time. The quotes below show an inspirational life that ended too soon.
Marilyn Monroe Quotes
1. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
2. “One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman. That is the way all females should feel.”– Marilyn Monroe
3. “Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”– Marilyn Monroe
4. “I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.”– Marilyn Monroe
5. “Always, always, always believe in yourself. Because if you don’t then who will, sweetie?”– Marilyn Monroe
6. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
7. “Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.”– Marilyn Monroe
8. “When you’re young and healthy you can plan on Monday to commit suicide, and by Wednesday you’re laughing again.”– Marilyn Monroe
9. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
10. “I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.”– Marilyn Monroe
11. “A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.”– Marilyn Monroe
12. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
13. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
14. “Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.”– Marilyn Monroe
15. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
16. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
17. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
18. “I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.”– Marilyn Monroe
19. “I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.”– Marilyn Monroe
20. “You just do it. You force yourself to get up. You force yourself to put one foot before the other, and goddamn it, you refuse to let it get to you. You fight. You cry. You curse. Then you go about your business of living. That’s how I’ve done it. There’s no other way.”– Marilyn Monroe
21.” 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.”– Marilyn Monroe
22. “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”– Marilyn Monroe
23. “To all the girls that think you’re fat – because you’re not a size zero you’re the beautiful one. It’s society who’s ugly.”– Marilyn Monroe
24. “Your clothes should be tight enough to show you’re a woman but loose enough to show you’re a lady.”– Marilyn Monroe
25. “I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.”– Marilyn Monroe
26. “I think there’s two things in human beings… that they want to be alone, but they also want to be together.”– Marilyn Monroe
27. “I don’t mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. But what goes with it can be a burden.”– Marilyn Monroe
28. “Most men judge your importance in their lives by how much you can hurt them, not by how happy you can make them.”–Marilyn Monroe
Also see: The Best Quotes about Blondes
29. “The one thing a person wants most in life is usually something basic that money can’t buy.”– Marilyn Monroe
30. “I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.”– Marilyn Monroe
31. “I’ve been asked, ‘Do you mind living in a man’s world?’ I always answer, ‘Not as long as I can be a woman in it.”– Marilyn Monroe
32. “Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?”– Marilyn Monroe
33. “I am invariably late for appointments – sometimes as much as two hours. I’ve tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.”– Marilyn Monroe
34. “My dinners at home are startlingly simple. Every night, I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots.”– Marilyn Monroe
35. “A man has a tendency to accept you the way you are, while most women immediately start to pick flaws and want to change you.”– Marilyn Monroe
36. “Sometimes I’ve been to a party where no one spoke to me for a whole evening. The men, frightened by their wives or sweeties, would give me a wide berth. And the ladies would gang up in a corner to discuss my dangerous character.”– Marilyn Monroe
37. “Of course, it does depend on the people, but sometimes I’m invited places to kind of brighten up a dinner table like a musician who’ll play the piano after dinner, and I know you’re not really invited for yourself. You’re just an ornament.”– Marilyn Monroe
38. “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?”– Marilyn Monroe
39. “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>”– Marilyn Monroe
40. “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.”– Marilyn Monroe
41. “Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting than being one.”– Marilyn Monroe
42. “Men who think that a woman’s past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid and weak.”– Marilyn Monroe
43. “Fame is like caviar, you know—it’s good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.”– Marilyn Monroe
44. “I think I’m a mixture of simplicity and complexes, but I’m beginning to understand myself now.”– Marilyn Monroe
45. “I dress for men. A woman looks at your clothes critically. A man appreciates them.”– Marilyn Monroe
46. “First, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.”– Marilyn Monroe
47. “I’d like to show that I can get publicity without using my ass or getting fired from a picture.”– Marilyn Monroe
48. “Be real, be yourself, be unique, be true, be honest, be humble, be happy…”– Marilyn Monroe
49. “I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.”– Marilyn Monroe
50. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”– Marilyn Monroe
51. “Ever notice how ‘What the hell’ is always the right answer?”– Marilyn Monroe
52. “How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.”– Marilyn Monroe
Video: Marilyn Monroe in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” – “Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend”
Marilyn Monroe singing “Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend” in her 20th movie appearance from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” 1953
Summary
Marilyn Monroe is regarded as one of America’s greatest actresses of all time. Her voice carries on through the movies and films she made including the meaningful thing she said.
Monroe’s insights are still very meaningful today just like they were fifty years ago. The above quotes are very encouraging and will without a doubt add purpose on your life.
Image credit: Trailer distributed by 20th Century Fox., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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