Women

"Oh! no one. No one in particular. A woman of no importance."

"There are only two kinds of women, the plain and the coloured."

"Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals."

"Women treat us just as humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them."

"Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly."

"Women never hit what they aim at, ... but if they shut their eyes and shoot in the air they generally find themselves in the bull's eye."

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult."

"Sweet promptings unto kindest deeds Were in her very look; We read her face, as one who reads A true and holy book."

"As pure and sweet, her fair brow seemed— Eternal as the sky; And like the brook's low song, her voice— A sound which could not die."

"Beware of fair and painted talk, Beware of flattering tongues: The Mermaids do pretend no good For all their pleasant songs. Some use the tears of crocodiles, Contrary to their heart: And if they cannot always weep, They wet their cheeks by art."

"Where women walk in public processions in the streets the same as the men, Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men; Where the city of the faithfullest friends stands, Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands, Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands, Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands, There the great city stands."

"Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone. To this end she had founded the Lunch Club, an association composed of herself and several other indomitable huntresses of erudition."

"I believe she keeps on being queenly in her own room, with the door shut."

"All fiefs were originally masculine, and women were excluded from the succession of them because they cannot keep secrets."

"Not from his head was woman took, As made her husband to o'erlook; Not from his feet, as one designed The footstool of the stronger kind; But fashioned for himself, a bride; An equal, taken from his side."

"Natalie had left the wives and joined the women."

"Eine Frau nun sieht nie ein, daß man alles auch begründen müsse; da sie keine Kontinuität hat, empfindet sie auch kein Bedürfnis nach der logischen Stützung alles Gedachten: daher die Leichtgläubigkeit aller Weiber. ... Die Frau erbittert die Zumutung, ihr Denken von der Logik ausnahmslos abhängig zu machen. Ihr mangelt das intellektuelle Gewissen. Man könnte bei ihr von »logical insanity« sprechen."

"There’s nothing sooner dry than women’s tears."

"Unequal nature, to place women’s hearts So far upon the left side."

"The countess Godiva, ... longing to free the town of Coventry from the oppression of a heavy toll, ... besought her husband, that ... he would free the town from that service, and from all other heavy burdens; and when the earl sharply rebuked her for foolishly asking what was so much to his damage, and always forbade her ever more to speak to him on the subject; and while she, on the other hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to exasperate her husband on that matter, he at last made her this answer, "Mount your horse, and ride naked, before all the people, through the market of the town, from one end to the other, and on your return you shall have your request." On which Godiva replied, "But will you give me permission, if I am willing to do it?" "I will," said he. Whereupon the countess, beloved of God, loosed her hair and let down her tresses, which covered the whole of her body like a veil, and then mounting her horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the market-place, without being seen except her fair legs; and having completed the journey, she returned with gladness to her astonished husband, and obtained of him what she had asked..."

": And women like that part which, like the lamprey, Hath never a bone in’t. : Fie, sir! : Nay, I mean the tongue; variety of courtship: What cannot a neat knave with a smooth tale Make a woman believe?"

"I will not stand for being called a woman in my own house."

"She is not old, she is not young, The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue. The haggard cheek, the hungering eye, The poisoned words that wildly fly, The famished face, the fevered hand— Who slights the worthiest in the land, Sneers at the just, contemns the brave, And blackens goodness in its grave."

"My wife is one of the best wimin on this Continent, altho' she isn't always gentle as a lamb with mint sauce."

"Q. What is a woman? A. An adult human female, who needs help opening this. [hands him an unopened jar]"

"They say that man is mighty, He governs land and sea; He wields a mighty scepter O'er lesser powers that be; And the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world."

"Too solemn for day, too sweet for night, Come not in darkness, come not in light; But come in some twilight interim, When the gloom is soft, and the light is dim."

"It is the highest and eternal duty of women,—namely to sacrifice their lives and to seek the good of their husbands."

"Every greedy, unreasonable dream I’d ever had about what a woman should be came true in Mona. There, God love her warm and creamy soul, was peace and plenty forever."

""Woman" must ever be a woman's highest name, And honors more than "Lady," if I know right."

"Liebe machet schoene wîp."

"All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women."

"Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors."

"The bird of the spirit of Humanity cannot fly with only one wing."

"Furens quid fœmina possit."

"Varium et mutabile semper, Femina."

"Dux femina facti."

"Cette femme a fait comme Troie: De braves gens sans aucun fruit Furent dix ans à cette proie Un cheval n'y fut qu'une nuit."

"D'aisso's fa be femna parer Ma domna, per qu'e·lh o retrai, Car no vol so c'om deu voler, E so c'om li deveda, fai."

"(Pero) en siendo mujeres, sean morenas, Sean blancas, ó no, todas son buenas."

"Let our weakness be what it will, mankind will still be weaker; and whilst there is a world, 'tis woman that will govern it."

"As if a woman of education bought things because she wanted 'em."

"A slighted woman knows no bounds."

"Shariputra, who is not a woman, appears in a woman's body. And the same is true of all women — though they appear in women's bodies, they are not women. Therefore the Buddha teaches that all phenomena are neither male nor female."

"The husband enhances the beauty of a woman more than her ornaments."

"She was lovely like an indistinct lunar disc, like a streak of gold covered with dust, like a golden reed broken by the wind, like a scar left by an arrow!"

"Woman yields herself to the lover because she feels that his desire makes him suffer. Isabel had compassion upon Lorenzo, Juliet upon Romeo, Francesca upon Paolo. Woman seems to say: "Come, poor one, thou shalt not suffer so for my sake!" And therefore is her love more loving and purer than that of man, braver and more enduring."

"Through her, through your Aldonza, through women you will see into the entire universe."

"Even in the purest realm of the spirit, without the shadow of any vice, man seeks support in woman, as Francis of Assisi did in Clare."

"All the charity of a woman, all the good she can do, the alms she gives, comes from her feeling herself a mother. And it was with the souls of mothers that the whores asked Don Quixote if he wanted something to eat. Behold, then, how his madness converted them into maidens; for all women, when they feel themselves mothers, are turned into maidens."