Top 177 Quotes & Sayings by Hugh Hefner

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American publisher Hugh Hefner.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

Hugh Marston Hefner was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obscenity. The first issue of Playboy was published in 1953, featuring Marilyn Monroe in a nude calendar shoot; it sold over 50,000 copies.

American - Publisher | April 9, 1926 - September 27, 2017

Source: Wikipedia

I'm not an active feminist: I'm an active humanist.

Hugh Hefner

I looked back on the roaring Twenties - with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby,' and the pre-Code films - as a party I had somehow managed to miss. After World War Two, I expected something similar, a return to the period after the first war, but when the skirt lengths went down instead of up, I knew we were in big trouble.

Hugh Hefner

To pursue your dreams, to have them come true, to have made a difference, to have changed society, to have fought against powerful forces... that's a life well-spent.

Hugh Hefner

I guess I'm the most successful man I know. I wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world.

Hugh Hefner

Being attacked by right-wing Christians did not bother me. Being attacked by liberal feminists did.

Hugh Hefner

The difference between Marilyn Monroe and the early Pamela Anderson is not that great. What's amazing is that the taste of American men and international tastes in terms of beauty have essentially stayed the same. Styles change, but our view of beauty stays the same.

Hugh Hefner

Living in the moment, thinking about the future, and staying connected to the past: That's what makes me feel whole.

Hugh Hefner

If you let society and your peers define who you are, you're the less for it.

Hugh Hefner

The people who had the most impact on me when I was young were Freud and Darwin, but growing up I also had my film idols.

Hugh Hefner

Sex, and the attraction between the sexes, does make the world go 'round.

Hugh Hefner

I always say now that I'm in my blonde years. Because since the end of my marriage, all of my girlfriends have been blonde.

Hugh Hefner

I'm very comfortable with the nature of life and death, and that we come to an end. What's most difficult to imagine is that those dreams and early yearnings and desires of childhood and adolescence will also disappear. But who knows? Maybe you become part of the eternal whatever.

Hugh Hefner

When 'Penthouse' and 'Hustler' came along, they confused what I was trying to do. Before they arrived, we were perceived as a sophisticated men's magazine.

Hugh Hefner

People get their information in different ways now. And we are a little poorer for it, because the way you get information affects what you learn.

Hugh Hefner

The interesting thing is how one guy, through living out his own fantasies, is living out the fantasies of so many other people.

Hugh Hefner

I guess you could say, I'm just a typical Methodist kid at heart.

Hugh Hefner

I think that retirement is the first step towards the grave.

Hugh Hefner

I looked back on the roaring Twenties, with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby' and the pre-Code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss.

Hugh Hefner

For me, the magazine was always the heart of what my life was all about, and the other half was living the life.

Hugh Hefner

The whole 1950s notion was find the right girl, get married, move to the suburbs and then hang out with the guys while she stayed home with the babies. I felt that was sort of sad.

Hugh Hefner

I remain very much connected to my childhood... I have never been too jaded or too sophisticated.

Hugh Hefner

It's hard to really compare new love and old love.

Hugh Hefner

The major civilizing force in the world is not religion, it is sex.

Hugh Hefner

Ageism is a variation of racism or sexism, all the other isms.

Hugh Hefner

Someone once asked, 'What's your best pickup line?' I said, 'My best pickup line is, 'Hi, my name is Hugh Hefner.'

Hugh Hefner

It's good to be selfish. But not so self-centered that you never listen to other people.

Hugh Hefner

I'm never going to grow up. Staying young is what it is all about for me.

Hugh Hefner

With the rabbit as our emblem, when we got to the point in 1960 of opening the first Playboy Club... one of our executives suggested the possibility of a bunny costume. We tried it out, and I made some modifications - added the cuffs and the bow tie and collar - and the bunny was born.

Hugh Hefner

You know, from my point of view, I'm the luckiest cat on the planet.

Hugh Hefner

What's amazing is that the taste of American men and international tastes in terms of beauty have essentially stayed the same. Styles change, but our view of beauty stays the same.

Hugh Hefner

Sex is the driving force on the planet. We should embrace it, not see it as the enemy.

Hugh Hefner

Part of the concept behind the magazine was breaking barriers. And it wasn't just a sexual thing. It was racial and doing the things that were right. And in the process, that set 'Playboy' apart.

Hugh Hefner

In my own words, I played some significant part in changing the social-sexual values of our time. I had a lot of fun in the process.

Hugh Hefner

The business end of business has never interested me.

Hugh Hefner

I think everyone should get married. I just took a little longer than usual.

Hugh Hefner

When I was four, we moved to the house on the west side of Chicago where I grew up. My earliest memories are of that first summer.

Hugh Hefner

Men project their fantasies onto me; they live them through who they think I am.

Hugh Hefner

I'm actually a very moral guy.

Hugh Hefner

I have no plans to retire. It's the perfect combination of work and play that keeps you young. If I quit work it would be the beginning of the end for me.

Hugh Hefner

The notion of the single man began in the 1950's. The idea of the bachelor as a separate life was new and obscure.

Hugh Hefner

I have very strong theories about magazine publishing. And I think that it is the most personal form of journalism. And I think that a magazine is an old friend.

Hugh Hefner

Creating my own world in a comic or selling my first penny newspaper aged nine was a way of gaining recognition and acceptance by my peers.

Hugh Hefner

I don't have dinner parties - I eat my dinner in bed.

Hugh Hefner

Surrounding myself with beautiful women keeps me young.

Hugh Hefner

Picasso had his pink period and his blue period. I am in my blonde period right now.

Hugh Hefner

In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined a sweeter life.

Hugh Hefner

I have about 100 pairs of pajamas. I like to see people dressed comfortably.

Hugh Hefner

The difference between Marilyn Monroe and the early Pamela Anderson is not that great.

Hugh Hefner

I was very influenced by the musicals and romantic comedies of the 1930s. I admired Gene Harlow and such, which probably explains why, since the end of my marriage, I've dated nothing but a succession of blondes.

Hugh Hefner

I separated ways from the American feminist movement when they became anti-sexual. I believe embracing sexuality is a part of what it means to be free.

Hugh Hefner

I think getting married was a mistake along the way, but at the same time I wouldn't have the wonderful children I have if I didn't get married.

Hugh Hefner

Historically the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, and they promptly turned around and started persecuting the people they didn't agree with - the scarlet letter A, and the stocks and the dunking board came from that. That puritanism is still there.

Hugh Hefner

Even when I was young, I said age is largely a state of mind if you're healthy.

Hugh Hefner

I was an absent dad. Once the magazine started, I really had two families. The dream was the magazine. I worked through the night all the time.

Hugh Hefner

Could I be in a better place and happier than I am today? I don't think so.

Hugh Hefner

Life is too short to be living somebody else's dream.

Hugh Hefner

If I ever try to get married again, shoot me.

Hugh Hefner

My folks were raised pure prohibitionist. They were very good people, with high moral standards - but very repressed. There was no hugging and kissing in my home.

Hugh Hefner

My parents are wonderful people and they instilled in me an idealism for which I'm grateful.

Hugh Hefner

I am in very good health. I've never felt better.

Hugh Hefner