Daily Inspiration Quote by Hugh Leonard

Leonard lands the line like a practiced dramatist: a social preference dressed up as a compliment, then undercut by the punchline’s blunt, almost adolescent visual logic. “I’ve always enjoyed a woman’s company more than men’s” could be read as gallant or even progressive, but he refuses the noble framing. He yanks the motive down to the easiest available explanation: they’re nicer to look at. The effect is disarming because it’s self-incriminating. He’s not claiming enlightened feminism; he’s confessing to a bias that’s both flattering and faintly grubby.

The subtext is doing two things at once. On one level, it punctures male solemnity: the pub-room seriousness of “men’s company” gets mocked as an aesthetic downgrade. On another, it exposes how often women are granted social value through appearance, even in praise. The joke works because it’s double-edged: it courts women’s approval while inviting them to roll their eyes at being reduced to scenery. It’s a line that knows it’s a line.

Context matters: Leonard’s era and milieu (mid-century Irish theatre, steeped in talk, banter, and social performance) prized aphoristic wit that could smuggle critique under charm. Dramatists write for mouths, not footnotes; this reads like dialogue designed to get a laugh and a wince in the same beat. The intent isn’t philosophical depth so much as stagecraft: reveal a character - and a culture - with one quick, revealing tilt of the knife.