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Fatherhood Quote by Imelda Marcos

"I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back!"

About this Quote

The line lands like a perfume ad sprayed over a crime scene: intimate, homespun, and calculated to soften the glare. “I have never been a material girl” isn’t just a denial; it’s a brand reset. Imelda Marcos isn’t arguing facts so much as mood, inviting you to imagine her as emotionally driven rather than acquisitive. It’s a clever pivot from objects to sentiment, from receipts to heart.

Then comes the father: the oldest PR shield in the book. By outsourcing the moral frame to paternal advice, she borrows credibility and nostalgia at once. The phrasing is canny, too. “Never to love anything that cannot love you back” turns consumption into a kind of romantic mistake. It implies that if she did love things - jewels, shoes, palaces - she was merely misled by the basic human desire for reciprocity. The sin becomes yearning, not greed.

The subtext hums with plausible deniability. “Material girl” evokes a pop stereotype, not kleptocracy. It shrinks systemic corruption into a personality quiz, as if the controversy were about taste rather than power. It’s also a subtle redefinition of value: if an object can’t love you, it’s not worth loving. That logic quietly elevates relationships, loyalty, adoration - currencies Marcos knew well and cultivated ruthlessly.

In context, the quote reads as reputation management from someone whose legend is inseparable from extravagance. Its intent isn’t to convince skeptics; it’s to give sympathizers a script: she wasn’t grasping, she was searching for love in the wrong places.

Quote Details

TopicLove
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Marcos, Imelda. (2026, February 19). I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back! FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-never-been-a-material-girl-my-father-54772/

Chicago Style
Marcos, Imelda. "I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back!" FixQuotes. February 19, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-never-been-a-material-girl-my-father-54772/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back!" FixQuotes, 19 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-never-been-a-material-girl-my-father-54772/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Imelda Marcos (born July 1, 1930) is a Celebrity from Philippines.

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