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Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it and it darts away.
Dorothy Parker
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Love is delicate and needs to be handled with care; if held too tightly, it can slip away.

Dorothy Parker's quote illustrates the fleeting nature of love and affection. It suggests that love cannot be forced or controlled; rather, it thrives in an atmosphere of freedom and trust. When one desperately tries to hold onto love, it often becomes elusive, whereas giving it space allows it to flourish.

Themes

LoveNatureAffectionTrustFreedom

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a romantic context during an anniversary dinner to emphasize the importance of trust in a relationship.

More from Dorothy Parker

There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.
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My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges.
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Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell.
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It is that word 'hunny,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
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I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
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