23 Quotes & Sayings By Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was born Marlene Elisabeth Maria Schwarzkopf on 21 July 1901 in Berlin, Germany. Her father, Rudolf Schwarzkopf, was a bookkeeper for the family's toy business. Her mother, Maria Anna Josefa (née Seidl), was the daughter of a house painter. Dietrich's career began when she was discovered by film director Richard Oswald in a cabaret in Berlin in 1923. She made her stage debut in Berlin the same year Read more

By 1925 she had signed a contract with the German company UFA and began making films with director Josef von Sternberg. Dietrich became known as the "Queen of the Melodrama." She was noted for her on-screen independence and frank sexual behavior and became an international star. In 1933, Dietrich began to receive critical acclaim for her acting and singing skills at the height of Nazi Germany's "cultural revolution." She also became known as "the most popular movie star" in Europe as well as "the most photographed woman in the world." In 1936 she starred in The Blue Angel, which is considered a masterpiece of German film and is one of her best-known films.

During World War II she was featured on the cover of Life magazine three times over a three-year period and was awarded the Great Cross of Merit by the Reichspropagandaleiter (Nazi propaganda minister) Joseph Goebbels. She appeared on more than forty magazine covers during World War II and throughout her lifetime appeared on eighty-five cover pages of Life alone. Dietrich starred opposite Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).

She gained further acclaim for her role as Mirella Manieri opposite Tyrone Power in Otto Preminger's Angel Face (1953). Perhaps her most famous role came when she was cast as Lola Lola Teplitzky opposite Alan Ladd in Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930). In 1955 Dietrich starred with David Niven in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, which coupled them at their peak popularity with audiences around the world.

They worked together again two years later in Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase as husband and wife as well as with Dietrich reprising her role from The Blue Angel as Lola Teplitzky opposite Ladd once again as Leo G

1
I do not think we have a "right" to happiness. If happiness happens, say thanks. Marlene Dietrich
I love quotations because it is a joy to find...
2
I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself. Marlene Dietrich
3
Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is the bullring. Marlene Dietrich
4
Sex: In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact. Marlene Dietrich
5
Logic is the key to an all-inclusive spiritual well-being. Marlene Dietrich
6
Once a woman has forgiven a man she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. Marlene Dietrich
7
There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich. Marlene Dietrich
8
It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. Marlene Dietrich
9
It's the friends you can call up at 4:00 a.m. that matter. Marlene Dietrich
10
Duties are what make life most worth living. Lacking them you are not necessary to anyone. Marlene Dietrich
11
How do you know love is gone? If you said that you would be there at seven and you get there by nine and he or she has not called the police - it's gone. Marlene Dietrich
12
Tenderness is greater proof of love than the most passionate of vows. Marlene Dietrich
13
A man would prefer to come home to an unmade bed and a happy woman than to a neatly made bed and an angry woman. Marlene Dietrich
14
"Glamour" is assurance. It is a kind of knowing that you are all right in every way mentally and physically and in appearance and that whatever the occasion or the situation you are equal to it. Marlene Dietrich
15
Grumbling is the death of love. Marlene Dietrich
16
To be completely woman you need a master, and in him a compass for your life. You need a man you can look up to and respect. If you dethrone him it's no wonder that you are discontented, and discontented women are not loved for long. Marlene Dietrich
17
When you're dead, you're dead. That's it. Marlene Dietrich
18
Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him. Marlene Dietrich
19
Courage and grace are a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring. Marlene Dietrich
20
I never enjoyed working in a film. Marlene Dietrich
21
Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. Marlene Dietrich
22
I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men. Marlene Dietrich