Quote of Every Woman’s Whole Life
“There isn’t one man in ten million that’s worth breaking your heart over.”
–Harriet Vane Wimsey in Dorothy Sayers’s Busman’s Honeymoon. Easy for her to say. And with the object/person confusion, too. Thanks for the tip, Harriet!
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Confusion, or deliberate? Maybe her point is that men are fungible, and each is better viewed as an “it” than a “he?”
Comment by Xrlq — January 10, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
A heart that isn’t broken now and then is a heart not worth having. Only one in ten million men, at best, is worthy of a woman’s affections ? Crazy.
RE: #1 Men are no more fungible than women, ‘tho I will grant that a certain class of men are more likely to view women in this way than are women.
Women do need to be more careful in their choices than men, and there does seem to be a built in precaution in women in this regard.
Comment by jbarntt — January 12, 2009 @ 10:38 pm
A heart that isn’t broken now and then is a heart not worth having.
I heartily disagree … to the extent that it could possibly be true, *once* is enough for anybody’s heart to break, not “now and then.”
Only one in ten million men, at best, is worthy of a woman’s affections ? Crazy.
No, that’s not what it says … it says only one in ten million, max, is worth breaking your heart if he decides your affections are not what he wants.
Also, I should point out that to the extent that I think this is true, it’s true for men as well–a woman who is likely to break your heart probably isn’t worth breaking your heart over.
Comment by Anwyn — January 13, 2009 @ 7:11 am
“There isn’t one man in ten million that’s worth breaking your heart over.”
Seems pretty clear to me: At best only one man in 10 million is worth heartbreak. You added:
if he decides your affections are not what he wants.
That’s not in the original quote. The quote means that there are at best 30 men in the USA worthy of breaking a woman’s heart. A broken heart is something that will happen, man or woman. If there are only 30 men in the USA who are worthy of women, then there are assuredly 149,970 women who have no hope for a good romantic life. The good news is it means that each of those 30 good men get 4999 women each.
At this point I should probably go over to Ace of Spades ;)
Comment by jbarntt — January 13, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
Heartbreak: Typically caused by the object of one’s affections refusing them. I take the quote to mean sure, have people you offer your affections to, but most people are simply not worth suffering agony over their rejection. It does not mean only one man in ten million is worthy of a woman. At all. It just means buck the hell up, get over it, and move on instead of lying down and feeling like you want to die. And I repeat that’s pretty good advice for everyone, but women especially. That’s all.
Comment by Anwyn — January 13, 2009 @ 11:04 pm