WOMEN QUOTES XXI

quotations about women

Woman is the salvation or destruction of the family. She carries its destinies in the folds of her mantle.

HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL

journal, December 11, 1872

Tags: Henri-Frederic Amiel


Women are getting more lead roles in Hollywood, which is fantastic. Bolstered by the box office success of movies like Trainwreck, The Hunger Games franchise and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, women in Hollywood have seen some small returns on their ongoing efforts at chipping away at the film industry's white, male problem. But, the numbers for diversity -- and, by extension, representation -- remain dismal. That's no surprise to anyone paying attention.

MEGAN REYNOLDS

"Study: Women Are Getting More Leads In Film, But Alas, They Are Mostly White", The Frisky, February 10, 2016


You don't know a woman until you've met her in court.

NORMAN MAILER

attributed, The Book of Poisonous Quotes

Tags: Norman Mailer


A man in love ... is the master, so it seems, but only if his lady friend permits it! The need to interchange the roles of slave and master for the sake of the relationship is never more clearly demonstrated than in the course of an affair. Never is the complicity between victim and executioner more essential. Even chained, down on her knees, begging for mercy, it is the woman, finally, who is in command ... the all powerful slave, dragging herself along the ground at her master's heels, is now really the god. The man is only her priest, living in fear and trembling of her displeasure.

PAULINE RÉAGE

introduction, The Image

Tags: Pauline Réage


You all know that even when women have full rights, they still remain fatally downtrodden because all housework is left to them. In most cases housework is the most unproductive, the most barbarous and the most arduous work a woman can do. It is exceptionally petty and does not include anything that would in any way promote the development of the woman.

VLADIMIR LENIN

"The Tasks of the Working Women's Movement in the Soviet Republic", Collected Works

Tags: Vladimir Lenin


A man who admires a fine woman, has yet not more reason to wish himself her husband, than one who admired the Hesperian fruit, would have had to wish himself the dragon that kept it.

ALEXANDER POPE

"Thoughts on Various Subjects"

Tags: Alexander Pope


Man ... heats up like a lightbulb: red hot in the twinkling of an eye and cold again in a flash. The female, on the other hand ... heats up like an iron. Slowly, over a low heat, like tasty stew. But then, once she has heated up, there's no stopping her.

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON

The Shadow of the Wind

Tags: Carlos Ruiz Zafon


The societies to which I have been exposed seemed to me largely machines for the suppression of women.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

All the Pretty Horses


There is such a thing as the wrong woman. She makes a man a fraction.... But the right woman! She multiplies a man.

HORACE HOLLEY

"The Genius"

Tags: Horace Holley


Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.

JANE AUSTEN

Mansfield Park

Tags: Jane Austen


I have often felt that I would find it more complicated, troublesome and unpleasant to ascertain the feelings by which a woman lives than to plumb the innermost thoughts of an earthworm.

OSAMU DAZAI

No Longer Human

Tags: Osamu Dazai


Women are books, and men the readers be,
Who sometimes in those books erratas see;
Yet oft the reader's raptured with each line,
Fair print and paper, fraught with sense divine;
Tho' some, neglectful, seldom care to read,
And faithful wives no more than bibles heed.
Are women books? says Hodge, then would mine were
An Almanack, to change her every year.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes"; They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."

CLARE BOOTHE LUCE

attributed, On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes

Tags: Clare Booth Luce


It had always bothered Tom that women thought they could win an argument with a man simply by appealing to his baser instincts, by holding out the mere possibility of award-winning carnal knowledge. It was the gender equivalent of a preemptive nuclear strike. He thought it unfair and, quite frankly, disrespectful of the entire male population. And yet he heard himself saying, "Look, baby doll, I don't want to argue either."

DAVID BALDACCI

The Christmas Train

Tags: David Baldacci


Women are necessarily capable of almost anything in their struggle for survival and can scarcely be convicted of such manmade crimes as "cruelty."

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Tender Is the Night

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


There's a lot of pressure on women to fulfill certain fantasies. They expect you to be a little bit of a tart, to flirt with all the men. A lot of women do it. But I'm not doing that. I talk with these guys about their wives and kids right away. When they say inappropriate things, I let them, because boys will be boys, but I'm not looking to participate in their conversations.

JESSICA ALBA

Marie Claire Magazine, March 2008

Tags: Jessica Alba


As God is my witness, the more I deal with women, the more I like my cat.

P. N. ELROD

The Dark Sleep

Tags: P. N. Elrod


If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.

PLATO

The Republic

Tags: Plato


Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

A Room of One's Own

Tags: Virginia Woolf


Woman, thou art a river, deep and wide,
Of waters soft and sweet:
Alas! I've never reached the other side;
Though oft I've wet my feet!

WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE

"Epigram", Imogen and Other Poems

Tags: William Batchelder Greene