"I want a man who's kind and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?"
About this Quote
Zsa Zsa Gabor’s line lands like a perfectly timed eyebrow raise: it pretends to be modest while quietly escalating the stakes. She starts with virtues nobody can argue against - “kind and understanding” - then swivels, in the same breath, to the punchline: the man should also be a millionaire. The joke isn’t that she wants money. The joke is that she frames wealth as the baseline, almost a given, and treats basic decency as the real luxury item. That inversion is the engine of the wit.
The subtext is a shrewd critique of what society expects women to trade for security. In a culture that routinely told actresses to marry well and smile through it, Gabor makes the bargain explicit, then demands better terms. She’s not apologizing for wanting a rich partner; she’s mocking the idea that affluence should excuse emotional stinginess. If he can buy the house, surely he can afford a little empathy.
Context matters: Gabor’s public persona was built on glamour, multiple marriages, and a kind of self-aware “continental” mischief that let her say what others couldn’t without being punished for it. The line plays like a defense and an indictment at once - a knowing nod to gold-digger stereotypes, paired with a refusal to accept that the rich get to be unbearable. It’s comedy with teeth: she sells you a fantasy, then uses it to expose how impoverished certain real-world relationships can be.
The subtext is a shrewd critique of what society expects women to trade for security. In a culture that routinely told actresses to marry well and smile through it, Gabor makes the bargain explicit, then demands better terms. She’s not apologizing for wanting a rich partner; she’s mocking the idea that affluence should excuse emotional stinginess. If he can buy the house, surely he can afford a little empathy.
Context matters: Gabor’s public persona was built on glamour, multiple marriages, and a kind of self-aware “continental” mischief that let her say what others couldn’t without being punished for it. The line plays like a defense and an indictment at once - a knowing nod to gold-digger stereotypes, paired with a refusal to accept that the rich get to be unbearable. It’s comedy with teeth: she sells you a fantasy, then uses it to expose how impoverished certain real-world relationships can be.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Attributed to Zsa Zsa Gabor: "I want a man who's kind and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?" — listed on Wikiquote (Zsa Zsa Gabor) as a cited quip. |
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