WOMEN QUOTES XXVI

quotations about women

What a woman thinks of women is the test of her nature.

GEORGE MEREDITH

Diana of the Crossways

Tags: George Meredith


As one person at the dinner table leans back, stretches, and opens their mouth in a gaping yawn, others will soon follow suit. Catching a yawn is more likely to occur between relatives than strangers, and scientists believe it's a sign of empathy. Plus, other social primates like chimps and bonobos do it, too. A new study suggests that women (traditionally branded the more empathetic sex) might be more susceptible to copycat yawning than men. Researchers surreptitiously analyzed more than 4000 real-world yawns on planes and trains, in restaurants, and in offices. They noted when someone yawned, and then whether a nearby acquaintance or friend did the same within a 3-minute period. Men and women spontaneously yawned with about the same frequency. But when someone else yawned first, women were more likely than men to follow suit. Women picked up yawns about 55% of the time, whereas men only did so 40% of the time.

LAUREL HAMERS

"Women are more empathetic than men, yawning study suggests", Science Mag, February 2, 2016


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


When my son said, "I can't stop thinking about girls," I said, "That's not gonna stop. Congratulations. You're in the club. From now until the day you die, one way or another you'll be thinking about girls."

PAUL REISER

Good Housekeeping, June 2011

Tags: Paul Reiser


Speak no evil of women; I tell thee the meanest of them deserves our respect; for of women do we not all come?

PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA

The Mayor of Zalamea


In oranges and women courage is often mistaken for insanity.

SALLY ROBINSON

Iron Jawed Angels

Tags: courage


'Of womenkind such indeed is the love,
Or the word love abused,
Under which many childish desires
And conceits are excused.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH

As Ye Came from the Holy Land

Tags: Sir Walter Raleigh


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


Two women seldom grow intimate but at the expense of a third person; they make friendships as kings of old made leagues, who sacrificed some poor animal betwixt them, and commenced strict allies; so the ladies, after they have pulled some character to pieces, are from henceforth inviolable friends.

ALEXANDER POPE

"Thoughts on Various Subjects"

Tags: Alexander Pope


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

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought


To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

MAHATMA GANDHI

Young India, October 4, 1930

Tags: Mahatma Gandhi


Womanliness means only motherhood;
All love begins and ends there.

ROBERT BROWNING

The Inn Album

Tags: Robert Browning


The younger and healthier a woman is and the more her new and glossy body seems destined for eternal freshness, the less useful is artifice; but the carnal weakness of this prey that man takes and its ominous deterioration always have to be hidden from him ... In any case, the more traits and proportions of a woman seem contrived, the more she delighted the heart of man because she seemed to escape the metamorphosis of natural things. The result is this strange paradox that by desiring to grasp nature, but transfigured, in woman, man destines her to artifice.

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

The Second Sex


Women are like those blinkin' little Greek islands, places to call at but not to stay.

STACY AUMONIER

"The Great Unimpressionable", The Golden Windmill and Other Stories

Tags: Stacy Aumonier


The heart of a coquette, like the tail of a lizard, always grows again after she has lost it.

ELIZA COOK

Diamond Dust

Tags: Eliza Cook


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"


He who desires a lifetime of happiness with a beautiful woman desires to enjoy the taste of wine by keeping his mouth always full of it.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Maxims for Revolutionists


Women are not for using. Women are for loving.

KEVIN LEMAN

Sex Begins in the Kitchen

Tags: Kevin Leman


Women are so sensitive, darling. They have to be. They have to be aware what a man wants, what their children want. They have antennae all over them, whiskers of feeling. And unfortunately that has a down side. It means they get hurt.

TANITH LEE

Hunting the Shadows

Tags: Tanith Lee


Women are the backbone of this country. We do it all -- we are the most organized and compassionate workers -- and we do it knowing our counterparts are paid more.

TONYA MURRAY

Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2017