Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.

Mae West’s quip hinges on the double meaning of “institution.” On one level, marriage is a venerable social institution—respected, even idealized. On another, an “institution” can mean a place of confinement (a prison or asylum). West’s persona—sexually frank, fiercely independent, and skeptical of conventional respectability—turns the compliment into a refusal: she acknowledges marriage’s cultural prestige while implying it can feel restrictive or coercive. The joke also reflects West’s broader comic strategy: puncturing moral pieties with innuendo and wordplay, and asserting personal autonomy against social expectations, especially those placed on women.

1) “Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.”
2) “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?”