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About this quote

What does it mean?
Telling a woman to do something may provoke her to do it immediately, perhaps contrary to the speaker's intent.
In plain terms
Giving a woman a directive can sometimes make her act on it right away.
What can you take from it?
Be careful how you phrase requests to women.

Where it applies

  • giving instructions
  • advice giving
  • social interaction

Putting it to work

  • frame requests carefully
  • consider timing

Questions to consider

  • How does instruction affect motivation?
  • What roles does gender play in compliance?

Another view

The quote assumes a specific gender dynamic that may not apply universally.

More from Gilbert Keith Chesterton

  1. Journalism largely consists in saying 'Lord Jones Dead' to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.

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  2. It is a quaint comment on the notion that the English are practical and the French merely visionary, that we were rebels in arts while they were rebels in arms.

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  3. To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it.

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