Coquetry

Coquetry is an affectation of amorous tenderness, especially of a woman directed towards a man. It is often considered to be a form of flirtation, but may be distinguished as being subtler and more innocent.

Sourced

• Like a lovely tree
  She grew to womanhood, and between whiles
  Rejected several suitors, just to learn
  How to accept a better in his turn.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 128.

• Such is your cold coquette, who can't say "No,"
  And won't say "Yes," and keeps you on and off-ing
  On a lee-shore, till it begins to blow,
  Then sees your heart wreck'd, with an inward scoffing.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XII, Stanza 63.

• Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and the prevalent humor of women; but they do not all practise it, because the coquetry of some it restrained by fear or by reason.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665–1678), No. 252.

• It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665–1678), No. 110.

• Women know not the whole of their coquetry.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665–1678), No. 342.

• The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665–1678), No. 359.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 139-40.

• Or light or dark, or short or tall,
  She sets a springe to snare them all:
  All's one to her—above her fan
  She'd make sweet eyes at Caliban.
  • Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Quatrains, Coquette.

• In the School of Coquettes
  Madam Rose is a scholar;—
  O, they fish with all nets
  In the School of Coquettes!
  When her brooch she forgets
  'Tis to show her new collar;
  In the School of Coquettes
  Madam Rose is a scholar!
  • Austin Dobson, Rose-Leaves, Circe.

• Coquetry whets the appetite; flirtation depraves it. Coquetry is the thorn that guards the rose—easily trimmed off when once plucked. Flirtation is like the slime on water-plants, making them hard to handle, and when caught, only to be cherished in slimy waters.
  • Ike Marvel, Reveries of a Bachelor, Sea-Coal, I.