The truth is 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. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them—and fooling them.
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)
Marilyn’s reading of the people is very accurate and also shows her frustration with the people around her. Since she was a celebrity and very beautiful, all sorts of people ran wild with their own imaginations and made all sorts of assumptions about her without bothering to know her as a person. She once said that ‘Dogs never bite me. Just humans’. :-)
If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that people around you such as your co-workers, acquaintances and, even people who know you very well, make assumptions (usually false assumptions) about you and then express surprise when you tell them it ain’t so. And if you were a celebrity with the popularity of Marilyn Monroe then the rumor mill gets in over-drive with total disregard for the facts and people start making false assumptions for which they have only themselves to blame.
It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)
Good answer by Marilyn to her detractors! They were obviously being untruthful in accusing that she had nothing on while she had the radio on! LOL
I used to think as I looked at 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.’
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)
This is a great quote that illustrates the power of dreaming big and have the conviction that your dreams will come true.
We often discourage ourselves and limit our dreams by harboring thoughts that there is too much competition, too many players in the particular field we are in. Considering that Marilyn Monroe faced heavy odds set against her right from her childhood and, unfortunately, lived a very short life, she still managed to attain great success in her life and became a big movie star.
As she herself mentions in the above quote, she was fully aware of the fierce competition in her chosen field but that did not deter her to follow her dream and attain it. Like every other successful person she had convinced herself that she will attain her dream as she was dreaming the hardest!
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 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.
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)
Now that is quite sad and true commentary about people in Hollywood and their money. I believe it’s not just the people in Hollywood but humans in general; lust, money and power seems to be the be all and end all. Hollywood gets under the microscope more often because the people there tend to show off more often the gazillions of dollars they seem to possess. Generally speaking, soul and virtue are of no consequence; these qualities just get a lip service.
Why are we as a species so much after lust, money and power? The obvious answer is our inherent desire to dominate. What is soul? Do humans have souls? I doubt it; I think there is nothing known as soul, it’s just a concept, a feeling. All normal humans are capable of knowing wrong from right and we feel guilty when we do something wrong. Then we start rationalizing our behavior to get over the feeling of guilt; some of us doing it more effectively than others. Soul is just a convenient concept we throw in for our rationalizations.
If people really had souls then when they become rich and powerful, they will still have souls and wouldn’t offer a thousand dollars for good looks and a kiss and fifty cents for the soul; would they? Or is it that one gets ‘Free’ of the soul as soon as one becomes rich and powerful?
