"Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly"
About this Quote
Mae West flips a familiar maxim on its side, replacing the moralizing call to do things well with a sensual, subversive insistence on pace. Worth is tied not just to quality but to tempo. If something matters, it deserves time, patience, and the kind of attention that refuses to be hurried. The line works as a wry double entendre, hinting at romance and pleasure, but it also reads as a practical philosophy of craft.
West built her persona on timing. The slow drawl, the strategic pause, the look that lands a half-second after the joke all made her lines sparkle. Slowness, for her, was technique. It multiplies meaning, lets pleasure accumulate, and gives space for nuance. Seduction thrives on it, and so does comedy. That instinct extends easily to work and life: mastery takes repetition, projects ripen with patience, relationships deepen through lingering presence. Rushing produces thin results; slowing down lets intention sink in.
Her career underscores the point. A vaudeville and burlesque veteran who wrote much of her own material, she came to Hollywood later than most stars and still seized it through control of her image and words. She pushed against censors, sometimes paying with arrests and bans, and learned to maneuver carefully, sharpening her innuendo so it could slip past the Hays Office. Progress arrived not by sprint but by shrewd, steady steps.
The line also punctures modern speed worship. Efficiency is not the same as care, and immediacy is not the same as importance. To move slowly is not to dawdle; it is to show devotion, to savor the process, to let a task disclose its shape. West turns patience into style and discipline into delight. Anything worth doing asks to be inhabited, not rushed through, and when we give it time, it gives something lasting back.
West built her persona on timing. The slow drawl, the strategic pause, the look that lands a half-second after the joke all made her lines sparkle. Slowness, for her, was technique. It multiplies meaning, lets pleasure accumulate, and gives space for nuance. Seduction thrives on it, and so does comedy. That instinct extends easily to work and life: mastery takes repetition, projects ripen with patience, relationships deepen through lingering presence. Rushing produces thin results; slowing down lets intention sink in.
Her career underscores the point. A vaudeville and burlesque veteran who wrote much of her own material, she came to Hollywood later than most stars and still seized it through control of her image and words. She pushed against censors, sometimes paying with arrests and bans, and learned to maneuver carefully, sharpening her innuendo so it could slip past the Hays Office. Progress arrived not by sprint but by shrewd, steady steps.
The line also punctures modern speed worship. Efficiency is not the same as care, and immediacy is not the same as importance. To move slowly is not to dawdle; it is to show devotion, to savor the process, to let a task disclose its shape. West turns patience into style and discipline into delight. Anything worth doing asks to be inhabited, not rushed through, and when we give it time, it gives something lasting back.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|
More Quotes by Mae
Add to List
