You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Mae West wasn't simply cheerleading carpe diem—she was making a quiet argument against the modern affliction of perpetual dissatisfaction, that nagging sense that we're always meant to be living a *different* life somewhere else. The genius lies in her reversal: most people treat one lifetime as insufficient, forever postponing joy until retirement, until they lose weight, until they meet the right person. When you watch someone constantly chasing the next milestone—the bigger house, the better job—while resenting their present circumstances, you see someone acting as though they've been given a second draft. West suggests that richness isn't about quantity of years, but about actually *inhabiting* the one you have.