The founder of iconic magazine Playboy, Hugh M. Hefner, died at the age of 91 from natural causes in Los Angeles, the magazine said Wednesday.

“Hugh M.Hefner, the American icon who in 1953 introduced the world to Playboy magazine and built the company into one of the most recognizable American global brands in history, peacefully passed away today from natural cause at his home, The playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones,” Playboy confirmed in a statement to E! News.

The magazine which started from humble origins in 1953, went on to become one of America’s most distinguished brands and cultural milestones, spurred by its iconic centerfolds.

The magazine's first centerfold was that of Marilyn Monroe.

However, the magazine was more than just gorgeous women on glossy magazine paper. Hefner, in his magazine, dealt progressively with the main themes and issues of the time, and commissioned established as well as upcoming writers to deal with subjects as varied as sexuality, literature, politics, and culture.

Playboy gave play within its pages to accomplished writers such as Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, John Updike, Ian Fleming, Joseph Heller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut.

Hefner also defined a certain urban, sophisticated lifestyle through his life, work and utterances. Here are 10 progressive quotes by Hefner from Good Reads and AZ quotes on life, success, and women:

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

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

3. Several girlfriends are easier to handle than one wife.

4. It has been our experience that women usually prefer thin, undernourished, flatchested females, dressed to the teeth, as a concept of "feminine beauty" — and that men prefer exactly the opposite: voluptuous, well-rounded and undressed. The women's idealization of a woman is actually a male counterpart, competing with a man in society; man's view of women is far more truly feminine.

5. My best pick-up line is “My name is Hugh Hefner.”

6. It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable. My religion and the spiritual side of my life come from a sense of connection to the humankind and nature on this planet and in the universe. I am in overwhelming awe of it all: It is so fantastic, so complex, so beyond comprehension. What does it all mean -- if it has any meaning at all? But how can it all exist if it doesn't have some kind of meaning? I think anyone who suggests that they have the answer is motivated by the need to invent answers because we have no such answers.

7. Women have traditionally been either put on pedestals or damned as the source of all sexual temptation and sin. These are two sides of the same coin, since both place women in a nonhuman role. Playboy has opposed these warped sexual values and, in so doing, helped women step down from their pedestals and enjoy their natural sexuality as much as men.

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

9. I would like to think that I will be remembered as someone who had some positive impact on the sociosexual values of his time. And I think I'm secure and happy in that.

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

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