Women

"If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts."

"Doorways are sacred to women for we are the doorways of life and we must choose what comes in and what goes out."

"Women want to become independent. To this end they are beginning to enlighten men about "women as such." This is one of the worst aspects of progress in the general uglification of Europe."

"In no age has the weaker sex been treated with as much respect by men as in ours: that belongs to the democratic inclination and basic taste, just like disrespectfulness for old age."

"On aime plus âprement que l'on ne hait."

"A crowd of women around me doing the ocean of women’s work that never subsided and never changed and always swallowed whatever time you gave it and wanted more, another hungry body of water. I submerged into it like a ritual bath and let it close over my head gladly."

"Today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work."

"She was a fine dashing woman, and without being either pretty or beautiful she gave the impression of being both, mostly from the splendid way she carried her head."

"Myriad are the phantasies That trouble the still dreams of maidenhood, And wonderful the radiant entities Shaped in the passion of her brain and blood. O Fancy! through the realm of guesses fly, Unlock the rich abstraction of her heart (Her soul is second in the mystery): Trail thy gold meshes through the summer sky; Question her tender breathings as they part, Tell me, Revealer, that she thinks of me."

"Amo, amas, I love a lass, As a cedar tall and slender; Sweet cowslip's grace Is her nom'native case, And she's of the feminine gender."

"Woman Is the Nigger of the World"

"Everything takes a different flavour when a woman does it."

"O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee To temper man: we had been brutes without you; Angels are painted fair, to look like you: There's in you all that we believe of Heaven, Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, Eternal joy, and everlasting love."

"Wit and woman are two frail things, and both the frailer by concurring."

"Nocte latent mendae, vitioque ignoscitur omni, Horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit."

"Procul hinc, procul este, severae!"

"There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper."

"Male conspiracy cannot explain all female failures. ... Genius is not checked by social obstacles: it will overcome. Men's egotism, so disgusting in the talentless, is the source of their greatness as a sex. ... Even now, with all vocations open, I marvel at the rarity of the woman driven by artistic or intellectual obsession, that self-mutilating derangement of social relationship which, in its alternate forms of crime and ideation, is the disgrace and glory of the human species."

"Zeus, in place of fire, bestowed another fire, woman. Would that neither woman nor fire had come into being! Fire, it is true, is soon put out, but woman is a fire unquenchable, flaming, ever alight."

"Yet this the need of woman, this her curse: To range her little gifts, and give, and give, Because the throb of giving’s sweet to bear."

"He was as much an admirer of the fair sex, so that when once on a specially dashing woman appearing in the gallery of the New South Wales Assembly, and Parkes being asked who she was, replied in sardonic style: "Well I don't know myself. I've asked George Reid and Wise, and they don't know, from which I conclude that she must be a woman of good reputation.""

"Still an angel appear to each lover beside, But still be a woman to you."

"She is older than the rocks among which she sits: like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas and keeps their fallen day about her; and trafficked for strange webs with Eastern merchants; and, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy, and, as Saint Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this has been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the delicacy with which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and tinged the eyelids and the hands."

"The noblest study of mankind is man, but the most fascinating study of womankind is another woman's wardrobe."

"Man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. And man was not created for the cause of the woman, but the woman for the cause of man; and therefore ought the woman to have a power upon her head."

"But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering."

"I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."

"Silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts."

"When a man is gone, all are wont to praise him, and should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still find it difficult not merely to overtake, but even to approach their renown. The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our path are honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. On the other hand, if I must say anything on the subject of female excellence to those of you who will now be in widowhood, it will be all comprised in this brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men, whether for good or for bad."

"Women's liberation could have not succeeded if science had not provided them with contraception and household technology."

"In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant."

"We cannot choose; our faces madden men!"

"Those who always speak well of women do not know them sufficiently; those who always speak ill of them do not know them at all."

"Women are like posters. One is stuck on top of another and covers it completely. Perhaps just for a moment, when the paste is still soft and the paper still wet and slightly transparent, you may still catch a vague impression of the splashes of color of the first, but soon there's no more trace of it. Then, when the second one is removed, both come away together, leaving your memory and your heart as blank as a wall."

"Since God chose His spouse from among women, most excellent Lady, because of your honor, not only should men refrain from reproaching women but should also hold them in great reverence."

"Every woman adores a Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you."

"Laïs of the haughty smile, The despair of Greece erewhile, Whose doors fond gallants wont to crowd, Hath her glass to Venus vowed: "Since what I am I will not see, And cannot what I used to be.""

"Nam multum loquaces merito omnes habemus, Nec mutam profecto repertam ullam esse Hodie dicunt mulierem ullo in seculo."

"Mulieri nimio male facere melius est onus, quam bene."

"Mulier recte olet, ubi nihil olet."

"Oh! say not woman's heart is bought With vain and empty treasure. * * * * * Deep in her heart the passion glows; She loves and loves forever."

"L'intelligence des femmes est inférieure à celle des hommes; toute femme qui tente de le nier travaille à le prouver."

"Qu'est-ce qu'une femme? Celle qui fait les heureux et qui console les malheureux."

"Così fan tutti."

"Offend her, and she knows not to forgive; Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live."

"Men some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake; Men some to quiet, some to public strife; But every lady would be queen for life."

"And mistress of herself, though china fall."

"Woman's at best a contradiction still."

"She went, to plain-work, and to purling brooks, Old-fashioned halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks: She went from op’ra, park, assembly, play, To morning-walks, and prayers three hours a day; To pass her time ’twixt reading and Bohea, To muse, and spill her solitary tea, Or o’er cold coffee trifle with the spoon, Court the slow clock, and dine exact at noon."

"Women would rather be right than reasonable."