WOMEN QUOTES XXI

quotations about women

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


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


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


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


The marginalization of women's voices in the news media under-values their potential contributions to society, and in the processes, diminishes democracy.

CYNTHIA CARTER

"On The Internet, Women Are Still Seen And Not Heard", Vocativ, February 8, 2016


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 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


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


It's a strange thing to think of a man as can lift a chair with his teeth, and walk fifty mile on end, trembling and turning hot and cold at only a look from one woman out of all the rest i' the world. It's a mystery we can give no account of.

GEORGE ELIOT

Adam Bede


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


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

PLATO

The Republic

Tags: Plato


Where neither love nor hatred is in the game, a woman's game is mediocre.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Beyond Good and Evil

Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche


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

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


While women once acquired relationship skills to "hook," "snare," or "catch" a husband who would provide access to economic security and social status, the position of contemporary women has not changed that radically. Much of our success still depends on our attunement to "male culture," our ability to please men, and our readiness to conform to the masculine values of our institutions.

HARRIET LERNER

The Dance of Intimacy: A Woman's Guide to Courageous Acts of Change in Key Relationships

Tags: Harriet Lerner


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


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


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


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


Because a woman brought death
a bright Maiden overcame it,
and so the highest blessing
in all of creation
lies in the form of a woman,
since God has become man
in a sweet and blessed Virgin.

HILDEGARD OF BINGEN

"Quia ergo femina"

Tags: Hildegard of Bingen


An artful or false woman shall set thy pillow with thorns.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER

Proverbial Philosophy

Tags: Martin Farquhar Tupper