WOMEN QUOTES VII
quotations about women
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
The Second Sex
People might not agree with me, but I think a woman should have a feminine shape, something you can get your hands on. You, on the other hand, look like you might be partial to the skinny type, a point of view I fully respect, don't misunderstand me.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Shadow of the Wind
The opinion I have of the generality of women--who appear to me as children to whom I would rather give a sugar plum than my time, forms a barrier against matrimony which I rejoice in.
JOHN KEATS
letter to George and Georgiana Keats, October 14, 1818
Woman is a delightful instrument of pleasure, but it is necessary to know its trembling strings, to study the position of them, the timid keyboard, the fingering so changeful and capricious which befits it.
HONORE DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
O lady, nobility is thine, and thy form is the reflection of thy nature!
EURIPIDES
Ion
Under his forming hands a creature grew,
Man-like, but different sex; so lovely fair
That what seemed fair in all the world, seemed now
Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,
And in her looks; which from that time infus'd
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before,
And into all things from her air inspir'd
The spirit of love and amorous delight.
She disappear'd, and left me dark; I wak'd
To find her, or for her ever to deplore
Her loss, and other pleasures abjure:
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow
To make her amiable: On she came,
Led by her Heavenly Maker, though unseen,
And guided by his voice; nor uninform'd
Of nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites:
Grace was in her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
When one sees one of the romantic creatures before him he imagines he is looking at some holy being, so wonderful that its one breath could dissolve him in a sea of a thousand charms and delights; but if one looks into the soul -- it's nothing but a common crocodile.
ANTON CHEKHOV
The Boor
Woman is prone by nature to jealousy, and brooks not a rival in the nuptial bed.
EURIPIDES
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is easier to make a glass tube pliable than to convince an obstinate woman she is in fault.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Table Talk, July 23, 1827
All is possible to woman, for woman alone may make herself impossible.
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
The Maxims of Marmaduke
Women are raised to be "Type A's"; they are perfectionists who make all their roles priorities. And then we further stress ourselves by overscheduling and refusing to drop old roles simply because we've picked up new ones. If you work outside the house, you still come home and are in charge of dinner and the children and the social life and the laundry.... Typically, a woman won't rest until the whole world can see that she is exhausted, until everyone else gives her permission to stop. What a woman has to do is give herself that permission.
GEORGIA WITKIN-LANOIL
The Courier, September 16, 1984
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.
CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Jane Eyre
Another writer asserts that the tyranny of man over woman has its roots, after all, in his nobler feelings; his love, his chivalry, and his desire to protect woman in the barbarous periods of pillage, lust, and war. But wherever the roots may be traced, the results at this hour are equally disastrous to woman. Her best interests and happiness do not seem to have been consulted in the arrangements made for her protection. She has been bought and sold, caressed and crucified at the will and pleasure of her master.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
introduction, History of Woman Suffrage
It is a strange feeling for a girl when first she finds the power put into her hand of influencing the destiny of another to happiness or misery. She is like a magician holding for the first time a fairy wand, not having yet had experience of its potency.
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY
Lodore
Son, heed my instruction, and apply thyself to know women; let thine eyes observe her when she is with another, for what she doeth with him, she will do with thee, also.
GELETT BURGESS
The Maxims of Methuselah
If a woman is successful, she'd better duck, because they'll be out to get her.
LEONA HELMSLEY
Playboy, November 1990
The domestic career is no more natural to all women than the military career is natural to all men.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
The Quintessence of Ibsenism
As to the pretty girls who went past, from the day on which I had first known that their cheeks could be kissed, I had become curious about their souls. And the Universe had appeared to me more interesting.
MARCEL PROUST
Within a Budding Grove
It seems to me that women are freed from their responsibilities only when they are merry widows or eccentric old spinsters.
TOBSHA LEARNER
Soul