Memorable Marilyn Monroe Quotes
Norma Jeane Mortenson, better known as Marilyn Monroe was an actress, model, and Hollywood icon of the 1950s and early 1960s.
Marilyn’s popular movies included Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. A former “Miss Artichoke” of Castroville, California, Norma Jeane changed her name to Marilyn Monroe in 1946 but didn’t legally do so until 1956.
Marilyn only lived to the age of 36 years old (August 4, 1962).
A couple of iconic moments in Marilyn’s life include singing “Happy Birthday Mister President” to John F. Kennedy in a skin-tight dress. The dress was so tight that Marilyn literally had to be sewn into it.
Another memorable event took place in the movie The Seven Year Itch. Most folks can quickly recall the most famous scene where her skirt is blown up from a subway vent blast before she quickly puts it back in place.
Marilyn’s likeness can be seen in many licensed products including those featuring Andy Warhol’s depiction of her. Her story can be found in countless books and magazines. And her words, especially some of the best Marilyn Monroe quotes, can be found below.
10 Best Marilyn Monroe Quotes
1.) Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.
2.) I’m selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I’m out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you don’t deserve me at my best.
3.) We are all stars but we must learn how to shine.
4.) Above all, I want to be treated as a human being.
5.) A wise girl kisses but doesn’t love, listens but doesn’t believe, and leaves before she is left.
6.) I don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.
7.) Fame is like caviar, you know — it’s good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.
8.) Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.
9.) To all the girls that think you’re fat because you’re not a size zero, you’re the beautiful one, its society who’s ugly.
10.) One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman. That is the way all females should feel.
Good Blonde Bombshell Quotes
Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
I love a natural look in pictures. I like people with a feeling one way or another — it shows an inner life. And I like to see that there’s something going on inside them.
Suicide is a person’s privilege. I don’t believe it’s a sin or a crime it’s your right if you do. Though it doesn’t get you anywhere.
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.
The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.
Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations but it also has its drawbacks, and I’ve experienced them both.
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.
Short MM Quotes
I don’t want to make money. I just want to be wonderful.
It’s all make-believe, isn’t it?
I read poetry to save time.
A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.
The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.
I defy gravity.
I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.
Who said nights were for sleep?
I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.
Too often they don’t realize what they have until it’s gone.
Anything’s possible, almost.
Friendship is the bestiest thing that comes to life.
Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them.
I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.
If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.
I like to feel blonde all over.
A career is born in public – talent in privacy.
I restore myself when I’m alone.
Dogs never bite me – just humans.
Funny Monroe Quotes
Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.
I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.
I’ve been on a calendar, but I’ve never been on time.
I love to do the things the censors won’t pass.
Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.
I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.
If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.
It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.
Inspirational
Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.
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.
Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?
It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.
She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that’s important— you know.
You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.
Learn to be a good friend because one day you’re gonna look up and say I lost a good friend. Learn how to be respectful to your friends, don’t just start arguments with them and don’t tell them the reason, always remember your friends will be there quicker than your family.
I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.
Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.
The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes — or just by staring into space.
Interesting Insights
Dreaming about being an actress is more exciting than being one.
I think there are two things in human beings… they want to be alone, but they also want to be together.
I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night — there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.
I’ve been to a party where no one spoke to me. 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.
Some people have been unkind. If I say I want to grow as an actress, they look at my figure. If I say I want to develop, to learn my craft, they laugh. Somehow they don’t expect me to be serious about my work.
See Best Songs With Girls’ Names in the Title
Hot Takes
Always, always, always believe in yourself. Because if you don’t then who will, sweetie?
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.
If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have gotten anywhere.
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.
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.
Famous Quotes by Marilyn Monroe
We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.
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.
I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself, and for my talent.
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.
I live to succeed, not to please you or anyone else.
Notable
We should all start to live before we get too old.
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.
A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows that she has none.
Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.
People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, and you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.
How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
I don’t stop when I’m tired. I only stop when I’m done.
Quotes About Women
A woman knows by intuition or instinct, what is best for herself.
A girl doesn’t need anyone who doesn’t need her.
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.
I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.
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.
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.
If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.
The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn’t any.
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.
Love Quotations
I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. (And) I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.
A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.
I think that love and work are the only things that really happen to us.
I could never pretend something I didn’t feel. I could never make love if I didn’t love, and if I loved I could no more hide the fact than change the color of my eyes.
All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same.
Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition of friendship.
You never know what life is like until you have lived it.
Quotes About Life
Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.
In spite of everything, life is not without hope.
Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.
If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.
For life: it is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: the truth can only be recalled, never invented.
Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.
Love and work are the only two real things in our lives. They belong together, otherwise, it is off. Work is in itself a form of love.
I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really.
On Beauty
Boys think girls are like books. If the cover doesn’t catch their eye they won’t bother to read what’s inside.
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.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
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.
The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.
Your clothes should be tight enough to show you’re a woman but loose enough to show you’re a lady.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is a writer and co-founder of ListCaboodle.
Encore
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