WOMEN QUOTES XXI

quotations about women

All the world's a stage, and it's a dead easy guess which sex has all the speaking parts.

ROBERT ELLIOTT GONZALES

Poems and Paragraphs

Tags: Robert Elliott Gonzales


You don't know a woman until you have had a letter from her.

ADA LEVERSON

Tenterhooks

Tags: Ada Leverson


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


For women, forming close, cooperative relationships with other women at once poses important opportunities and possible threats--including to mate retention. To maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of same-sex social relationships, we propose that women's mate guarding is functionally flexible and that women are sensitive to both interpersonal and contextual cues indicating whether other women might be likely and effective mate poachers. Here, we assess one such cue: other women's fertility. Because ovulating (i.e., high-fertility) women are both more attractive to men and also more attracted to (desirable) men, ovulating women may be perceived to pose heightened threats to other women's romantic relationships.

JAIMIA ARONA KREMS & REBECCA NEEL

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, January 14, 2016


Nature admits of no permanence in the relation between man and woman.... It is only man's egoism that wants to keep woman like some buried treasure. All endeavors to introduce permanence in love, the most changeable thing in this changeable human existence, have gone shipwreck in spite of religious ceremonies, vows, and legalities.

LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH

Venus in Furs

Tags: Leopold von Sacher-Masoch


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


When women let their hair down, it means either sexiness or craziness or death, the three by Victorian times having become virtually synonymous.

MARGARET ATWOOD

"Ophelia Has a Lot to Answer For"

Tags: Margaret Atwood


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


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

CORMAC MCCARTHY

All the Pretty Horses


The successful woman has a secret. She's learned that she owes it to herself, her children, and the world to make the contribution she was born to make. She's learned to ask for advice and help, to insist on getting paid what she's worth, and to set boundaries at work and at home so that her needs get met, not trampled. She puts her dreams at the top of her priorities list, not at the bottom. She feels great about being recognized for her accomplishments, and she's totally OK with the fact that not everyone is going to like her when she stands up to those who would discount her or put her down.

DEBRA CONDREN

Good Housekeeping, August 2010


Frailty, thy name is woman.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Hamlet

Tags: William Shakespeare


It is indeed a misfortune for a woman to be without beauty, as with men the eye is the chief arbiter of qualities in the sex. Her beauty is her capital--her worth in the market matrimonial depends upon it. With her the Virtues are less reverenced when unaccompanied by the Graces. The sex understand this very well; and hence they seek mainly to make captive the eye, knowing the mind and heart will follow as a matter of course.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


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


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

NORMAN MAILER

attributed, The Book of Poisonous Quotes

Tags: Norman Mailer


Woman loves or hates: she knows no middle course.

PUBLILIUS SYRUS

The Moral Sayings of Publilius Syrus


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

PLATO

The Republic

Tags: Plato


With women the best part is the discovery. There's nothing like the first time, nothing. You don't know what life is until you undress a woman the first time. A button at a time, like peeling a hot sweet potato on a winter's night.

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON

The Shadow of the Wind

Tags: Carlos Ruiz Zafon


As the vine which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils and bind up its shattered boughs, so is it beautifully ordered by Providence that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity, winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the broken heart.

WASHINGTON IRVING

"The Wife", The Sketch Book

Tags: Washington Irving


As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

Three Guineas


The mere idea of marriage, as a strong possibility, if not always nowadays a reasonable likelihood, existing to weaken the will by distracting its straight aim in the life of practically every young girl, is the simple secret of their confessed inferiority in men's pursuits and professions today.

WILLIAM BOLITHO

Twelve Against the Gods

Tags: William Bolitho