Women

"What peremptory, eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty?"

"Fair ladies mask'd are roses in their bud: Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels veiling clouds, or roses blown."

"You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so."

"Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here... Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall."

"Women are frail too. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves; Which are as easy broke as they make forms. Women! help heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them."

"We cannot fight for love, as men may do; We should be woo’d, and were not made to woo."

"Would it not grieve a woman to be overmaster'd with a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a cloud of wayward marl?"

"She speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star."

"One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am well: another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace."

"A maid That paragons description and wild fame; One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, And in the essential vesture of creation Does tire the ingener."

"You are pictures out of doors, Bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds."

"And have not we affections, Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? Then let them use us well: else let them know, The ills we do, their ills instruct us so."

"Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature."

"Have you not heard it said full oft, A woman's nay doth stand for nought?"

"Think you a little din can daunt mine ears? Have I not in my time heard lions roar? * * * * * * Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies? * * * * * * And do you tell me of a woman's tongue, That gives not half so great a blow to hear As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?"

"Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute? Why, no; for she hath broke the lute to me."

"Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain She sings as sweetly as a nightingale; Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear As morning roses newly wash'd with dew; Say she be mute and will not speak a word; Then I'll commend her volubility, And say she uttereth piercing eloquence."

"A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty."

"I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace."

"Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts?"

"'Tis a good hearing, when children are toward. But a harsh hearing, when women are froward."

"The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I, The gunner, and his mate, Loved Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery, But none of us cared for Kate; For she had a tongue with a tang, Would cry to a sailor, Go hang! She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch; Yet a tailor might scratch her where’er she did itch. Then, to sea, boys, and let her go hang!"

"Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; For what I will, I will, and there an end."

"To be slow in words is a woman's only virtue."

"He bears an honorable mind, And will not use a woman lawlessly."

"Thou dotard! Thou art woman-tir’d, unroosted By thy Dame Partlet here."

"If, one by one, you wedded all the world, Or from the all that are took something good, To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd Would be unparallel'd."

"Women will love her that she is a woman More worth than any man; men, that she is The rarest of all women."

"Women are angels, wooing: Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing; That she beloved knows nought that knows not this: Men prize the thing ungained more than it is."

"A woman impudent and mannish grown Is not more loath’d than an effeminate man In time of action."

"Women are as roses; whose fair flower, Being once display’d, doth fall that very hour."

"I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women And if we don't we'll have a race of babies That will hate the ladies that make the babies And since a man can't make one He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one So will the real men get up I know you're fed up, ladies, but keep your head up."

"Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits."

"In the beginning, said a Persian poet—Allah took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When he looked at the amalgam—it was a woman."

"Man was made when Nature was but an apprentice, but woman when she was a skilful mistress of her art."

"Woman's dearest delight is to wound Man's self-conceit, though Man's dearest delight is to gratify hers."

"You sometimes have to answer a woman according to her womanishness, just as you have to answer a fool according to his folly."

"Women, for the sake of their children and parents, submit to slaveries and prostitutions that no unattached woman would endure."

"Woman reduces us all to the common denominator."

"The fickleness of the woman I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me."

"Home is the girl’s prison and the woman’s workhouse."

"She was an extremely attractive woman if you like the type, which could best be described as homicidal schizophrenic paranoiac with kittenish overtones."

"If women had wives to keep house for them, to stay home with vomiting children, to get the car fixed, fight with the painters, run to the supermarket, reconcile the bank statements, listen to everyone’s problems, cater the dinner parties, and nourish the spirit each night, just imagine the possibilities for expansion — the number of books that would be written, companies started, professorships filled, political offices that would be held, by women."

"A lovely lady garmented in light."

"One moral's plain, * * * without more fuss; Man's social happiness all rests on us: Through all the drama—whether damn'd! or not— Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot."

"Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen Here's to the widow of fifty Here's to the flaunting, extravagant queen; And here's to the housewife that's thrifty. Let the toast pass— Drink to the lass— I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the glass!"

"Mobilior ventis o femina!"

"She is herself of best things the collection."

"Our poor eyes were so enriched as to behold, and our low hearts so exalted as to love, a maid who is such, that as the greatest thing the world can show is her beauty, so the least thing that may be praised in her is her beauty."

"All the cost bestowed did not so much enrich, nor all the fine decking so much beautify, nor all the dainty devices so much delight, as the fairness of Parthenia, the pearl of all the maids of Mantinea, who, as she went to the temple to be married, her eyes themselves seemed a temple wherein love and beauty were married."