Woman is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.

The line contrasts public acclaim with private intimacy: it suggests that a woman’s proper “end” is not to attract universal admiration but to cultivate a singular, domestic happiness—implicitly within marriage. Read historically, it reflects an eighteenth-century ideal that prized female virtue, modesty, and the private sphere over public display. The aphorism also reveals how “happiness” is framed relationally and asymmetrically: the woman is positioned as the means of another’s fulfillment (“one”), rather than as an autonomous subject pursuing her own happiness. In modern reception, it is often cited either as a defense of marital devotion against vanity or, conversely, as an example of restrictive gender norms.