Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Joyce Brothers

"No matter how love-sick a woman is, she shouldn't take the first pill that comes along"

About this Quote

Brothers packages a therapeutic warning in the shape of a dirty joke, which is exactly why it lands. "Love-sick" sets up romance as a kind of feverish impairment: you are not at your best, your judgment is chemically compromised. Then she snaps the frame from hearts to medicine cabinets. The "first pill that comes along" works as a double entendre - contraception, tranquilizers, anything promised as relief - but it also reads as a broader critique of quick fixes sold to women who are told their longing is a pathology.

The intent is protective and pointed: don't medicate away the ache of loneliness by outsourcing your choices to whatever solution is nearest, flashiest, or most socially approved. The subtext, sharper than it looks, is about agency under pressure. A "love-sick" woman is exactly the person advertisers, suitors, and even well-meaning friends can steer. Brothers is saying: your vulnerability is a marketplace; don't become an easy customer.

Context matters. Brothers was a mid-century media psychologist who translated mental health into talk-show vernacular. She spoke in an era when women's emotional lives were routinely minimized ("hysterical", "needy") and when pharmaceuticals and self-help were booming, often pitched as lifestyle upgrades. The line uses humor to smuggle in a boundary: desire isn't an emergency that requires immediate treatment. Sit with it long enough to choose deliberately - not reactively - because the wrong "pill" can be a relationship, a habit, or a story about yourself you'll spend years trying to taper off.

Quote Details

TopicLove
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Brothers, Joyce. (2026, January 15). No matter how love-sick a woman is, she shouldn't take the first pill that comes along. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-matter-how-love-sick-a-woman-is-she-shouldnt-61292/

Chicago Style
Brothers, Joyce. "No matter how love-sick a woman is, she shouldn't take the first pill that comes along." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-matter-how-love-sick-a-woman-is-she-shouldnt-61292/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"No matter how love-sick a woman is, she shouldn't take the first pill that comes along." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-matter-how-love-sick-a-woman-is-she-shouldnt-61292/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Joyce Add to List
No matter how love-sick a woman is, do not take the first pill
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Joyce Brothers

Joyce Brothers (September 20, 1927 - May 14, 2013) was a Psychologist from USA.

17 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Irving Berlin, Musician