Source identified1
Image design Golden Hour
Read & copy
“the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.”
Meaning & context
Eliza argues that social status is reinforced by how other people treat her, not merely by clothes, accent or learned manners.
Source details
Pygmalion, Act V, Project Gutenberg #3825. Eliza tells Pickering that the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she is treated, contrasting Pickering’s respect with Higgins’s treatment of her. The line remains dramatic dialogue about class, dignity and social recognition rather than a universal sociological formula.