Dumbass Sayings: “We Should All Start To Live Before We Get Too Old”

Wise words from a great
philosopher.

Marilyn Monroe is frequently credited with the quote “We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” There are a few things wrong with this saying. First of all, this is pretty insulting to old people. Are you trying to say old people don’t know how to live? Old people can’t enjoy life and have fun? Yeah make sure you live as much as you can now before you become elderly and useless since when you’re old you can’t enjoy anything and all you want to do is die. That’s a nice message to send! I’m sure no grandparents are insulted by that notion. Also, the second part of this quote is “Fear is stupid.” Meanwhile the quote is explicitly a statement of fear. The idea that you need to live before you get too old is spurred and motivated by fear, specifically the fear of regret. You're afraid you won’t start to live before you get too old. So if you’re going to say fear is stupid then you’re basically saying the first part of what you said is stupid.

Lastly, the quote says “Regrets are stupid.” I agree with this. Regrets ARE stupid. So even if you have a reason to regret things like not living enough while you’re young, forget about it! If regrets are stupid then don’t even bother regretting things! If regrets are stupid and pointless then there’s no reason to even listen to this quote because it’s all about regret. You want to start living before you get too old because if you don’t you’ll regret it… Basically this saying negates itself at every turn. It states one thing which is arguably wrong then argues against it with the next sentence and further argues against its own point again with the third. This is just a really dumb quote. For Marilyn Monroe’s sake I hope it’s one of the many quotes that is falsely attributed to her.