Daily Inspiration Quote by Mae West

Mae West’s line is a wink dressed up as advice: a faux-practical proverb that’s really about pleasure, control, and refusing to be rushed by anyone else’s tempo. Coming from an actress who built a career on weaponized innuendo and unbothered confidence, “slowly” doesn’t just mean carefully. It means luxuriantly, with full awareness of the audience watching and the rules she’s about to bend.

The specific intent is twofold. On the surface, it flatters patience and craft: if something matters, give it time. Underneath, West smuggles sex into the grammar of self-improvement. The phrase “worth doing” tees up a moral category, like work ethic or virtue, then she twists it into a sensual ethic. She takes a culture obsessed with efficiency and turns it into a joke at efficiency’s expense. The humor lands because it’s structured like a cliché you’ve heard a hundred times; the surprise is the last word, which changes the entire register from industrious to indulgent.

Context matters: West rose during and against eras of heavy-handed sexual policing (stage censors, then Hollywood’s Production Code). Her persona survived by speaking in double meanings that were technically deniable and socially electrifying. “Slowly” becomes a kind of protest: against prudishness, against male pacing, against the idea that productivity is the highest good. It’s not a call to laziness; it’s a claim that the best experiences - art, desire, even power - require time, attention, and the nerve to set the pace yourself.