Women

"But most thro’ midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new-born Infant's tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse."

"Thank heaven for little girls! For little girls get bigger every day."

"Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here If thou appear untouched by solemn thought, Thy nature is not therefore less divine. Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year; And worshipp'st at the temple’s inner shrine, God being with thee when we know it not."

"Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella, Et fugit ad salices et se cupit ante videri."

"And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair."

"'Tis a credit to any good girl to be neat, But quite a disgrace to be fine."

"Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life."

"What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice And all things nice. That's what little girls are made of."

"The full sum of me Is sum of something, which, to term in gross, Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed; Happy in this, she is not yet so old But she may learn; happier than this, She is not bred so dull but she can learn; Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be directed As from her lord, her governor, her king."

"You speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance."

"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."

"Oh, my sweet Mother—'tis in vain— I cannot weave, as once I wove— So wildered is my heart and brain With thinking of that youth I love!"

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

"The eroticization of innocence and the fascination with the erotic child are deeply gendered. From depictions of sexualized images of prepubescent girls in the Victorian era to the Lolita-like commodification of little girls as sexual consumers and performers in contemporary society, it is the girl-child, not the boy-child, whose innocence is eroticized. And it is the eroticization of little girls that provokes our (adult) concern for their protection. Indeed, societal anxieties around girls as we enter the first decade of the twenty-first century continue to circle around what Walkerdine has termed the "protosexual" girl. It is the sexual girl that represents the "Other" to normal childhood, where "normal girls as well behaved, hard working and asexual"."

"The laughter of girls is, and ever was, among the delightful sounds of earth."

"Sugar, spice and everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls."

"Dimply damsel, sweetly smiling, All caressing, none beguiling, Bud of beauty, fairly blowing, Every charm to Nature owing, This and that new thing admiring, Much of this and that enquiring, Knowledge by degrees attaining, Day by day some virtue gaining, Ten years hence, when I leave chiming, Beardless poets, fondly rhyming, (Fescued now, perhaps, in spelling,) On thy riper beauties dwelling, Shall accuse each killing feature Of the cruel, charming creature Whom I knew complying, willing, Tender, and averse from killing."

"And there was that wholesale libel on a Yale prom. If all the girls attending it were laid end to end, Mrs. Parker said, she wouldn't be at all surprised."

"Virginibus cordi grataque forma sua est."

"Families selling their children, and mostly girls, so that families could buy food. In one of reported cases, a six-year-old girl and 18-month-old toddler were sold for $3,350 and $2,800 respectively. In another reporting, a 9-year-old girl was sold for about $2,200 in the form of sheep, land and cash. There are many more such stories.... Some of these girls will become child brides... Child marriage are also a major violation of their human rights and can sometimes amount to a form of modern day slavery. While poverty may drive child marriage, child marriage traps girls in a cycle of poverty. Child marriage further puts girls at risk of physical and sexual abuse... Some of the girls will be turned into child laborers... The people of Afghanistan cannot be left to starve. Afghan girls cannot be sacrificed."

"The young girl stood beside me. I Saw not what her young eyes could see: —A light, she said, not of the sky Lives somewhere in the Orange Tree."

""Always be civil to the girls, you never know who they may marry" is an aphorism which has saved many an English spinster from being treated like an Indian widow."

"In country music, the singers are really soulful, and you can just hear all the emotion on their voices. They mean everything they say. And R&B is the same way. It's like every note, every word, is telling you exactly how the singers feel about what they're singing about. It's just that in country music, all that feeling is usually about a truck, and in R&B, it's more often about a girl. And for me, girls are a lot more fun to sing about than a truck."

"There was a little girl, Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead, When she was good, She was very good indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid."

"Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers.... When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music."

"There is nothing so difficult to support imperturbably as the head of a lovely girl, except her grief."

"A young girl's beauty should speak to the soul and to the imagination, and not to the senses like the beauty of women."

"A blossom yet unsmelt, A tender shoot unpinched, A gem uncut, Untasted, fresh-fermented honey-wine, The fruit of proper actions Still intact— A beauty without fault or flaw."

"A girl and a guinea are both alike. You never know how good they are till you ring them."

"Girls were made to love and kiss."

"Oh God — I look back now, and it seems so gross. At just 14 years old, I had to wear a thong bikini. And then they used that scene in the trailer, so my entire school saw it! There are still men who come up to me today and say, "You were really hot in that film!" I was 14, for God's sake!"

"When I was 13, I was flat as a board and totally unhappy about it. I would write in my diary every day, Oh, if I could just have a B cup by summer! I actually prayed for big boobs. So I developed at about 14, and then I was 15, 16, 17, and they kept going."

"A good many girls these days assume the male role and call boys for dates. I have a nagging feeling that boys are going to get less and less interested in girls as a result. The intrigue is going. If a girl wants to put herself on an equal plane with the boy, she's going to find herself less and less in demand. It used to be that if guys wanted to date a sharp girl they had to polish the car and fix themselves up — and compete. If they don't have to do that, they're going to lose interest. Maybe girls phone boys from necessity. Maybe the boys don't have that get-up-and-go — that desire. I see an extreme lack of desire in young men today."

"Recently Anita and I judged a beauty contest where the girls answered questions about marriage and motherhood. Several said, "I think I'll be a good mother. I plan to stay with my children full-time until nursery school, and then I can go out and work. Seems as though the girls think it's okay to raise their kids until nursery school, then let others do it from then on. Sure, plenty of husbands want that, too. Some parents ship their kids off to school or camp all summer just to get rid of them. Most of the girls we interviewed in this contest said they saw nothing unusual about having sexual intercourse before marriage. These are so-called nice girls, eighteen and nineteen, who without batting an eyelash tell you, "I don't think there's anything wrong with living together before marriage." You ask why, and discover many come from broken homes. They don't want to make the mistakes their parents made. They'd rather avoid marriage completely."

"No boys for me growing up! I was so skinny and tall. Everybody called me a giraffe. ... I had no boobs and no butt and nobody liked me, I was so lonely. All the boys would come to me and want advice because they wanted my friend. But nobody ever wanted me — high school was a very sad, lonely time."

"Young girls are the chatelaines of truth; they must see that it is protected, that the guilty lead the life of the guilty, even if the world rocks on its foundations."

"Three little maids from school are we, Pert as a schoolgirl well can be, Filled to the brim with girlish glee."

"When one is not used to it, it is difficult to be recollected in the middle of a crowd of more or less wild little girls, who in class do the bare minimum that will keep them out of trouble and in play-time go right off their heads."

"I am going to turn over a new life and am going to be a very good girl and be obedient to Isa Keith, here there is plenty of gooseberries which makes my teeth watter."

"Fiddlesticks," Mother said. "Anything he will learn about sixteen-year-old girls from you will probably be a good deal more innocent than what he will learn some day from sixteen-year-old girls."

"They shut me up in Prose - As when a little Girl They put me in the Closet - Because they liked me "still" -Still! Could themself have peeped - And seen my Brain - go round - They might as wise have lodged a Bird For Treason - in the Pound -"

"I assure you she's the dearest girl."

""You were speaking about its being a girl," said Miss Betsey. "I have no doubt it will be a girl. I have a presentiment that it must be a girl. Now child, from the moment of the birth of this girl—" "Perhaps boy," my mother took the liberty of putting in. "I tell you I have a presentiment that it must be a girl," returned Miss Betsey."

"Minerva House, conducted under the auspices of the two sisters, was a 'finishing establishment for young ladies,' where some twenty girls of the ages of from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything, and a knowledge of nothing; instruction in French and Italian, dancing lessons twice a-week; and other necessaries of life."

"Please, come take my hand Girl, you'll be a woman soon Soon, you'll need a man."

"In the summer, girls come and summer girls go. Some are worthwhile and some are so-so."

"He found the harem filled with rocking maids Surrendered to the orgies of the sob."

"Secrets with girls, like loaded guns with boys, Are never valued till they make a noise."

"Poor little rich girl You're a bewitched girl, Better beware!"

"A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she play’d, Singing of Mount Abora."