Marilyn Monroe Quotes Proverbs, and Aphorisms

Updated 2025/05/18

June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962
American
Actress, Singer, Model, Pop Culture Icon

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, and cultural icon who rose to fame in the 1950s for her beauty, charisma, and comedic talent. Known for films like Some Like It Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and The Seven Year Itch, she became the era’s ultimate sex symbol and a symbol of Hollywood glamour. Despite her public image, Monroe was a complex figure who aspired to be taken seriously as an actress and faced personal struggles with fame, identity, and mental health. Her tragic death at age 36 only deepened her mystique. Monroe remains a lasting icon of femininity, vulnerability, and celebrity mythology.

“Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.”
“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.”
“I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.”
“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.”
“Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I’d sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn’t miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.”
“My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.”
“Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”
“When Clark Gable died, I cried for 2 days straight. I couldn’t eat or sleep.”
“An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?”
“I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one.”
“A man makes you feel important – makes you glad you are a woman.”
“Dogs never bite me – just humans.”
“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.”
“We should all start to live before we get too old.”
“The public doesn’t mind people living together without being married, providing they don’t overdo it.”
“I restore myself when I’m alone.”
“What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?”
“When I was a youngster I lived with different families. I nearly always felt closer to the man of the house. Maybe because I always dreamed of having a father of my own.”
“I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity, and that includes all kinds of parts.”
“I think I have always had a little humor.”
“The working men, I’ll go by and they’ll whistle. At first they whistle because they think, ‘Oh, it’s a girl. She’s got blond hair and she’s not out of shape,’ and then they say, ‘Gosh, it’s Marilyn Monroe!'”
“One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman. That is the way all females should feel.”
“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 for friendship.”
“There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, ‘Fine,’ but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, ‘What a horror!'”
“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.”
“At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.”
“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.”
“I don’t want everybody to see exactly where I live, what my sofa or my fireplace looks like.”
“In Hollywood a girl’s virtue is much less important than her hairdo.”
“You know, most people really don’t know me.”
“Designers want me to dress like Spring, in billowing things. I don’t feel like Spring. I feel like a warm red Autumn.”
“If you spend your life competing with business men, what do you have? A bank account and ulcers!”
“It’s not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do – everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.”
“Why is it you always meet people when you look your worst?”
“I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.”
“If your man is a sports enthusiast, you may have to resign yourself to his spouting off in a monotone on a prize fight, football game or pennant race.”
“I have noticed… that men usually leave married women alone and are inclined to treat all wives with respect. This is no great credit to married women.”
“A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.”
“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.”
“Consider the fellow. He never spends his time telling you about his previous night’s date. You get the idea he has eyes only for you and wouldn’t think of looking at another woman.”
“How do I know about a man’s needs for a sex symbol? I’m a girl.”
“I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.”
“Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.”
“I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!”
“First, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.”
“If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.”
“It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.”
“Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, ‘One tear, right now,’ that one tear would pop out.”
“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.”
“I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.”
“Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.”
“If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.”
“Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.”
“I learned to walk as a baby, and I haven’t had a lesson since.”
“I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.”
“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.”
“My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I’m not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I’m 50?”
“I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.”
“I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.”
“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.”
“A woman can bring a new love to each man she loves, providing there are not too many.”
“I just got to feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me.”
“What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.”
“I don’t know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people can’t stand to be invited someplace that isn’t full of other important people. They don’t mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.”
“I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don’t know who or what, maybe myself.”
“A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.”
“Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered… to feel she is the most important thing in someone’s world. Only a man can paint this picture.”
“I love a natural look in pictures.”
“When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.”
“Nothing’s ever easy as long as you go on living.”
“Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations but it also has its drawbacks, and I’ve experienced them both.”
“Depending upon my activities, I sleep between five and ten hours every night. I sleep in an extra-wide single bed, and I use only one heavy down comforter over me, summer or winter. I have never been able to wear pajamas or creepy nightgowns; they disturb my sleep.”
“I wish I knew why I am so anguished.”
“There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.”
“An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.”
“Next to my husband, and along with Marlon Brando, I think that Yves Montand is the most attractive man I’ve ever met.”
“I want the world to see my body.”
“Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.”
“I don’t mind living in a man’s world as long as I can be a woman in it.”
“I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president’s birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!'”
“I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.”
“The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.”
“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.”
“Friends accept you the way you are.”
“I like to feel blonde all over.”
“Someday I want to have children and give them all the love I never had.”
“We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.”
“There was my name up in lights. I said, ‘God, somebody’s made a mistake.’ But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, ‘Remember, you’re not a star.’ Yet there it was up in lights.”
“When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.”
“There is just no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.”
“It’s nice to be included in people’s fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.”
“I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.”
“I’ll think I have a few wonderful friends and all of a sudden, ooh, here it comes. They do a lot of things. They talk about you to the press, to their friends, tell stories, and you know, it’s disappointing.”
“I’ve often stood silent at a party for hours listening to my movie idols turn into dull and little people.”
“When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.”
“I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.”
“I think that sexuality is only attractive when it’s natural and spontaneous.”
“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.”
“Confidentially, the type of male I find most enjoyable for a friend is one who has enough fire and assurance to speak up for his convictions.”
“Fear is stupid. So are regrets.”
“The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel for every child I had, I would adopt another.”
“Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.”
“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.”
“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 used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, ‘There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.’ But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.”
“If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.”
“I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.”
“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.”
“What’s the good of drawing in the next breath if all you do is let it out and draw in another?”
“It’s all make believe, isn’t it?”
“An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.”
“Fame may go by and – so long, I’ve had you.”
“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.”
“I often wake up in the night, and I like to have something to think about.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.”
“The fact is that I find more most men are more open, more generous, and much more stimulating than the majority of females I know.”
“A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.”
“I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.”
“I have never cared especially for outdoor sports and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I’ll leave those things to the men.”
“Girls shouldn’t worry about being the equal of men in the business world.”
“What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.”
“Having a child, that’s always been my biggest fear. I want a child and I fear a child.”
“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.”
“I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.”
“I don’t look at myself as a commodity, but I’m sure a lot of people have.”
“I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated.”
“A smart girl leaves before she is left.”
“What good am I? I can’t have kids. I can’t cook. I’ve been divorced three times. Who would want me?”
“I remember when I was in high school I didn’t have a new dress for each special occasion. The girls would bring the fact to my attention, not always too delicately. The boys, however, never bothered with the subject. They were my friends, not because of the size of my wardrobe but because they liked me.”
“Someone said to me, ‘If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?’ My answer was then and still is, ‘If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.'”
“I enjoy acting when you really hit it right.”
“If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.”
“We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.”
“Sex is a part of nature. I go along with nature.”
“If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.”
“A career is born in public – talent in privacy.”
“I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.”
“In fact, my popularity seems almost entirely a masculine phenomenon.”
“When I was five I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress.”
“Men who think that a woman’s past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid and weak.”
“I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.”
“Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.”
“I have been told my eating habits are absolutely bizarre. But I don’t think so.”
“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.”
“The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.”
“The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.”
“To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I’m working on the foundation.”
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
“Sometimes, wearing a scarf and a polo coat and no makeup and with a certain attitude of walking, I go shopping or just look at people living. But then, you know, there will be a few teenagers who are kind of sharp, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, just a minute. You know who I think that is?’ And they’ll start tailing me. And I don’t mind.”
“Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?”
“Fame is like caviar, you know – it’s good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.”
“All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‘Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.'”
“I’ve been on a calendar, but I’ve never been on time.”
“I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.”
“Men are so willing to respect anything that bores them.”
“I have evolved my own exercises, for the muscles I wish to keep firm, and I know they are right for me because I can feel them putting the proper muscles into play as I exercise.”
“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.”
“I read poetry to save time.”
“I’ve never dropped anyone I believed in.”
“The ‘public’ scares me, but people I trust.”
“Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.”
“I defy gravity.”
“I want to be an artist, not… a celluloid aphrodisiac.”
“The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has cleavage. They ought to worry if she hasn’t any.”
“I don’t digest things with my mind.”
“I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.”
“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.”
“For a long time I was scared I’d find out I was like my mother.”
“I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.”
“I’ve always wanted a baby.”
“Black men don’t like to be called ‘boys,’ but women accept being called ‘girls.'”
“I’m looking forward to becoming a marvelous – excuse the word marvelous – character actress. like Marie Dressler, like Will Rogers.”
“I’ve always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, ‘Hi,’ that the people ought to get their money’s worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.”
“Only the public can make a star. It’s the studios who try to make a system out of it.”
“Girdles and wire stays should have never been invented. No man wants to hug a padded bird cage.”
“It is wonderful to have someone praise you, to be desired.”
“There is a need for aloneness, which I don’t think most people realise for an actor. It’s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you’ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you’re acting. But everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you.”
“If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.”
“I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.”
“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
“I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I’m doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.”
“Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle. So at least it’s something I experience, but that’s not where I live.”
“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.”