Fear is stupid. So are regrets. — Marilyn Monroe

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

Author: Marilyn Monroe

Insight: There's something bracing about this statement, especially because it comes across as blunt rather than inspirational. Monroe isn't saying fear is something to overcome through meditation or positive thinking—she's calling it stupid. And that matters, because sometimes the most useful thing someone can say isn't "you'll be okay," but rather "this feeling you're having isn't actually serving you." The pairing with regrets is the real insight. We often treat fear and regret as opposites—one stops us from acting, the other haunts us for having acted. But Monroe's point is that they're basically the same trap: both are thoughts you're paying rent to live in. Fear whispers "what if something bad happens," while regret whispers "something bad already did." Neither one changes what's actually true or possible right now. The thing is, calling them "stupid" doesn't mean you won't feel them—plenty of intelligent people do. But it means you don't have to let them make your decisions for you. You can feel the fear or the regret, notice it's there, and then ask yourself what a person who actually trusted their own judgment would do next.