WOMEN QUOTES XXV

quotations about women

Very handsome women have usually far less sensibility to compliments than their less beautiful sisters.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


I think it says that women are tired of being left behind, having to wait their turn for the men.

YOLIE FLORES

"Half the candidates in L.A.'s congressional race are women: Trump was wake-up call", Los Angeles Times, April 3, 2017


You've heard it before, but are afraid to say it aloud for fear of sounding boastful. Southern women are prettier than others. But wait just a cotton pickin' minute. Is it true? Are we really prettier? I'll let you in on a little secret. We're not. Everyone just has that illusion because the truth is, we only try harder. Our secret weapon for loveliness, passed down by generations of Southern ladies, is our ability to make the best out of what we have, or in other words, "effort."

LESLIE ANNE TARABELLA

"Are Southern women prettier?", AL, April 3, 2017


Women have now marvelous means of winning their way in the world, and mind without muscle has far greater force than muscle without mind.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: Walter Bagehot


What, then, is feminine as contrasted with masculine? what is womanly as compared with manly, whether in literature or in life? Men and women have many qualities in common, and resemble more than they differ from each other. But while, speaking generally, the man's main occupations lie abroad, the woman's main occupation is at home. He has to deal with public and collective interests; she has to do with private and individual interests. We need not go so far as to say, with Kingsley, that man must work and woman must weep; but at least he has to fight and to struggle, she has to solace and to heal. Ambition, sometimes high, sometimes low, but still ambition--ambition and success are the main motives and purpose of his life. Her noblest ambition is to foster domestic happiness, to bring comfort to the afflicted, and to move with unostentatious but salutary step over the vast territory of human affection. While man busies himself with the world of politics, with the world of commerce, with the rise and fall of empires, with the fortunes and fate of humanity, woman tends the hearth, visits the sick, consoles the suffering--in a word, in all she does, fulfils the sacred offices of love.

ALFRED AUSTIN

The Bridling of Pegasus

Tags: Alfred Austin


For I cannot think that GOD Almighty ever made them [women] so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves.

DANIEL DEFOE

The Education of Women

Tags: Daniel Defoe


Daughters of the attitude that produced them, certain women will not appeal to us without the double bed in which we find peace by their side, while others, to be caressed with a more secret intention, require leaves blown by the wind, water rippling in the dark, things as light and fleeting as they are.

MARCEL PROUST

The Guermantes Way

Tags: Marcel Proust


Women themselves condition their daughters to serve the system of male primacy. If a daughter challenges it, the mother will generally defend the system rather than her daughter. These mothers, victims themselves, have unwittingly become wounded wounders. Women need to attack culture's oppression of women, for there truly is a godlike socializing power that induces women to "buy in" or collude, but we also need to confront our own part in accepting male dominance and take responsibility where appropriate.

SUE MONK KIDD

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

Tags: Sue Monk Kidd


No man can have a reasonable opinion of women until he has long lost interest in hair-restorers.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought


Somehow, everyone hates to see an unusually pretty girl get married. It is like taking a bite out of a very fine-looking peach.

EDGAR WATSON HOWE

Country Town Sayings

Tags: Edgar Watson Howe


The woman is the man's glory, and she naturally delights in the praises which are assurances that she is fulfilling her function; and she gives herself to him who succeeds in convincing her that she, of all others, is best able to discharge it for him. A woman without this kind of "vanity" is a monster.

COVENTRY PATMORE

The Rod, the Root, and the Flower

Tags: Coventry Patmore


The women are, of course, the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world and, if we are to believe the Book of Genesis, the very oldest.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Anthills of the Savannah

Tags: Chinua Achebe


It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men, the military figures men. The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status.

HOWARD ZINN

A People's History of the United States

Tags: Howard Zinn


Women are cats ... and love to scratch even those they're fond of. Sometimes the more they love them the harder they scratch.

WILLIAM JOHN LOCKE

Septimus

Tags: William John Locke


A woman needn't be dragged down by her functions.

D. H. LAWRENCE

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Tags: D. H. Lawrence


A woman is essentially a vessel made to be filled.

JOSÉ SARAMAGO

Baltasar and Blimunda

Tags: José Saramago


Everywhere there is pleasure you will find a woman in disguise.

JEAN BAUDRILLARD

Cool Memories

Tags: Jean Baudrillard


Most fashionable ladies are as diamonds because they are more costly than useful.

WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY

Proverbs


It is a common fate -- a woman's lot --
To waste on one the riches of her soul,
Who takes the wealth she gives him, but cannot
Repay the interest, and much less the whole.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

"The Common Lot"


A man, at least, is free; he can explore every passion, every land, overcome obstacles, taste the most distant pleasures. But a woman is continually thwarted. Inert and pliant at the same time, she must struggle against both the softness of her flesh and subjection to the law. Her will, like the veil tied to her hat by a string, flutters with every breeze; there is always some desire luring her on, some convention holding her back.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

Madame Bovary

Tags: Gustave Flaubert