If I said I was madly in love with you, I'd be lying and what's more, you'd know it.
Margaret MitchellRead
All really nice girls wonder when men don't try to kiss them. They know they shouldn't want them to and they know they must act insulted if they do, but just the same, they wish the men would try.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the complex emotions women experience regarding romantic advances from men.
Margaret Mitchell highlights the paradoxical feelings many women face when it comes to men making advances. While societal expectations dictate that women should be offended by overt attempts, there is an underlying desire for affection and validation, suggesting that these conflicting emotions can often create tension in romantic interactions.
In practice
In a discussion about romantic relationships during a women's retreat.
If I said I was madly in love with you, I'd be lying and what's more, you'd know it.
You're like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail. - Rhett Butler
It's a curse - this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy.
Well, my dear, take heart. Some day, I will kiss you and you will like it. But not now, so I beg you not to be too impatient.
men are so conceited they’ll believe anything that flatters them
Oh, why was he so handsomely blond, so courteously aloof, so maddeningly boring with his talk about Europe and books and music and poetry and things that interested her not at all - and yet so desirable?
Dumbledore paused, and although his voice remained light and calm, and he gave no obvious sign of anger, Harry felt a kind of chill emanating from him and noticed that the Dursleys drew very slightly closer together. “You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you.
They are a very extensive minority who have suffered discrimination and who have the same right to participation in the promise and fruits of society as every other individual.
The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.
If thou art willing to suffer no adversity, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?
They who go Feel not the pain of parting; it is they Who stay behind that suffer.
If we fetishize trauma as incommunicable, then survivors are trapped - unable to feel truly known by their nonmilitary friends and family.
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