Women

"Ὦ διὰ τῶν θυρίδων καλὸν ἐμβλέποισα, παρθένε τὰν κεφαλάν, τὰ δ᾽ἔνερθε νύμφα."

"Any woman who has a career and a family automatically develops something in the way of two personalities, like two sides of a dollar bill, each different in design. But one can complement the other to make a valuable whole. Her problem is to keep one from draining the life from the other. She can achieve happiness only as long as she keeps the two in balance."

"Be to her virtues very kind; Be to her faults a little blind. Let all her ways be unconfin'd; And clap your padlock—on her mind."

"The gray mare will prove the better horse."

"As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion."

"It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house."

"Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colours."

"The King’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company, and shall be brought unto thee."

"Чем меньше женщину мы любим, Тем легче нравимся мы ей. И тем ее вернее губим. Средь обольстительных сетей."

"Like to the falling of a star, * * * * Like to the damask rose you see, Or like the blossom on the tree."

"If she undervalue me, What care I how fair she be?"

"If she seem not chaste to me, What care I how chaste she be?"

": Men are more eloquent then women made: : But women are more powerfull to persuade."

"Like tapers on the altar shine her eyes; Her breath is the perfume of sacrifice."

"De Carlos el Rey es hija, Mas es muger, y ha mas años La mudanza en las mugeres, Que no la nobleza en Carlos."

"Las mujeres son espejo Que viendo vuestro retrato, Si os descuidais y otro llega, Hará con él otro tanto."

"And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne."

"That, let us rail at women, scorn and flout 'em, We may live with, but cannot live without 'em."

"Such a plot must have a woman in it."

"A woman is the most inconsistent compound of obstinacy and self-sacrifice that I am acquainted with."

"O wild, dark flower of woman, Deep rose of my desire, An Eastern wizard made you Of earth and stars and fire."

"Men grow cold as girls grow old And we all lose our dreams in the end, But square-cut or pear-shaped, These rocks don't lose their shape: Diamonds are a girl's best friend."

"Woman must raise herself to such a degree, spiritually, morally and intellectually, that it will enable her to carry man with her. ... She must become not only an equal cooperator in the management of the whole life, but also an inspirer. The greatest task is to spiritualize and to restore the health of humanity by filling it with aspiration toward great deeds and beauty. But woman must first of all change herself!"

"There exists a most ancient saying, "Where women are revered and safeguarded, prosperity reigns and the gods rejoice.""

"Women are like elephants. I like to look at 'em but I'd hate to own one."

"I remember when OB tampons came out and you could hold them in your hand, and I'd walk down the hall holding my little OB tampon and I thought, "If I open my hand and show this to anybody, the whole building is going to explode.""

"In those rare individual cases where women approach genius they also approach masculinity."

"The blessed damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters stilled at even; She had three lilies in her hand, And the stars in her hair were seven."

"Twilight is not good for maidens."

"Le monde est le livre des femmes."

"Women, like summer storms, awhile are cloudy, Burst out in thunder and impetuous showers: But straight the sun of beauty dawns abroad, And all the fair horizon is serene."

"As many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive."

"I was no better than some geek with a foam-rubber woman's torso like they advertise in Hustler. What a pathetic, twisted version of womanhood: all the "inessential" parts lopped off, nothing left behind but tits and ass and holes. Lifelike washable plastic skin. Greek and French features. But yet, in a way, wasn't the sex sphere always what I'd wanted in a woman? An ugly truth there. "Shut up and spread!" How many times had I told Sybil that, if not in so many words?"

"Μισῶ τὴν ἀφελῆ͵ μισῶ τὴν σώφρονα λίαν· ἡ μὲν γὰρ βραδέως͵ ἡ δὲ θέλει ταχέως."

"Do son todas mugeres, nunca mengua renzilla."

"Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress, The Creator's self, as it were, not a mere creature!"

"The superior virtue of women was made a reason for keeping them out of politics, where, it was held, a lofty virtue is impossible. But the early feminists turned the argument round, and contended that the participation of women would ennoble politics. Since this has turned out to be an illusion, there has been less talk of women's superior virtue, but there are still a number of men who adhere to the monkish view of woman as the temptress. Women themselves, for the most part, think of themselves as the sensible sex, whose business it is to undo the harm that comes of men's impetuous follies. For my part I distrust all generalizations about women, favourable and unfavourable, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern; all alike, I should say, result from paucity of experience."

"Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted."

"The Romans and the Sabines renewed their battle in the valley that lies between the two hills. But the advantage rested with the Romans. Then the Sabine women, whose wrong had given rise to the war, with loosened hair and torn garments, their woman's timidity lost in a sense of their misfortune, dared to go amongst the flying missiles, and rushing in from the side, to part the hostile forces and disarm them of their anger, beseeching their fathers on this side, on that their husbands, that fathers-in-law and sons-in-law should not stain themselves with impious bloodshed, nor pollute with parricide the suppliants' children, grandsons to one party and sons to the other. "If you regret the relationship that unites you, if you regret the marriage-tie, turn your anger against us; we are the cause of war, the cause of wounds, and even death to both our husbands and our parents. It will be better for us to perish than to live, lacking either of you, as widows or as orphans." It was a touching plea, not only to the rank and file, but to their leaders as well. A stillness fell on them, and a sudden hush. Then the leaders came forward to make a truce, and not only did they agree on peace, but they made one people out of the two."

"That woman, as nature has created her and as man is at present educating her, is his enemy. She can only be his slave or his despot, but never his companion. This she can become only when she has the same rights as he, and is his equal in education and work."

"Women and elephants never forget an injury."

"How shall I free myself from this marble envelope which grips me round the knees, and holds me as totally imprisoned as a corpse by its tomb?"

"Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough, A-top on the topmost twig,—which the pluckers forgot, somehow,— Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it till now. * * * Like the wild hyacinth flower, which on the hills is found, Which the passing feet of the shepherds for ever tear and wound, Until the purple blossom is trodden into the ground."

"Such, Polly, are your sex—part truth, part fiction; Some thought, much whim, and all a contradiction."

"Ehret die Frauen! sie flechten und weben Himmlische Rosen in's irdische Leben."

"Women are treated as unjustly in poetry as in life. If they’re feminine, they’re not ideal, and if ideal, not feminine."

"Women had prerogative in deliberative sessions touching either peace-government, or martial affairs."

"I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, ... A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind."

"Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies A lass unparalleled."

"Women would rather be right than reasonable."