85+ Inspirational Marilyn Monroe Quotes [2024] American Famous Actress

Updated: January 20th, 2022

Marilyn Monroe was a Famous American Actress, Singer, and Model.

The American Film Institute ranked Marilyn Monroe sixth on its list of the Greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood in the year 1999.

Monroe became a famous actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock.

We've put together an incredible collection of Marilyn Monroe quotes to read.

Here they are:

85+ Inspirational Marilyn Monroe  Quotes [2024] American Famous Actress

List of Inspiring Marilyn Monroe Quotes

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


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


Please quote me right!


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.


It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.


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


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


All we demanded was our right to twinkle.


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


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.


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


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.


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


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


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


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


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


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.


Anything’s possible, almost.


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.


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?


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


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


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


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


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.


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.


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


Dogs never bite me. Just humans.


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.


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


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


Men are always ready to respect anything that bores them.


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


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


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.


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


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


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


Who said nights were for sleep?


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


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


It’s all make believe, isn’t it?


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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.


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


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


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


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.


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


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.


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


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


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


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.


In spite of everything life is not without hope.


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.


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


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


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.


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


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.


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.


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Its 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.


I read poetry to save time.


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.


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.


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


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


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


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.

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.