"Time wounds all heels"
About this Quote
A clean little pun can carry a whole worldview, and "Time wounds all heels" does it with a wink and a knife. Jane Sherwood Ace takes the sentimental bromide "Time heals all wounds" and flips two letters to expose what that original phrase often paper-covers: some people don’t get softened by time, they get caught by it.
Calling them "heels" is doing cultural work. It’s old-school slang with a vaudeville snap: the heel as the cad, the creep, the small-time operator who treats life like a hustle. Ace’s revision turns time from a kindly nurse into a quiet enforcer. Years don’t just mend heartbreak; they also collect receipts. The line implies karma without the incense, justice without the courtroom. It’s less about moral purity than inevitability: reputations sour, patterns calcify, lies become harder to maintain, bodies keep score. If you live like a heel, time isn’t your therapist - it’s your deadline.
As an actress working in an era when entertainment culture was built on persona, timing, and public judgment, Ace’s quip reads like backstage wisdom sharpened into a one-liner. The theater teaches you that audiences remember character types, and the world does too. The joke lands because it’s funny and because it’s threatening: it comforts the wronged while warning the charmingly awful that their charm has an expiration date.
Calling them "heels" is doing cultural work. It’s old-school slang with a vaudeville snap: the heel as the cad, the creep, the small-time operator who treats life like a hustle. Ace’s revision turns time from a kindly nurse into a quiet enforcer. Years don’t just mend heartbreak; they also collect receipts. The line implies karma without the incense, justice without the courtroom. It’s less about moral purity than inevitability: reputations sour, patterns calcify, lies become harder to maintain, bodies keep score. If you live like a heel, time isn’t your therapist - it’s your deadline.
As an actress working in an era when entertainment culture was built on persona, timing, and public judgment, Ace’s quip reads like backstage wisdom sharpened into a one-liner. The theater teaches you that audiences remember character types, and the world does too. The joke lands because it’s funny and because it’s threatening: it comforts the wronged while warning the charmingly awful that their charm has an expiration date.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ace, Jane Sherwood. (2026, January 16). Time wounds all heels. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/time-wounds-all-heels-113061/
Chicago Style
Ace, Jane Sherwood. "Time wounds all heels." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/time-wounds-all-heels-113061/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Time wounds all heels." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/time-wounds-all-heels-113061/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.
More Quotes by Jane
Add to List













