Women
female adult human
Women are adult human females. The term woman (irregular plural: women). The term girl is the usual term for a female child or adolescent.
A
edit- Muliebre ingenium, prolubium, occasio.
- A woman's nature, lust, and opportunity.
- Lucius Accius, from Andromeda, quoted by Nonius, 64, 5
- If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, March 31, 1776. Published in L. H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1 (1963), p. 370.
- When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman.
- Joseph Addison, The Spectator (May 24, 1711).
- Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul,
Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee,
Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine!- Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act III, scene 2.
- Women’s movements have a special significance for the immediate future. These movements should be understood not as an assertion of supremacy, but as the establishment of justice. Much has been said about co-measurement and equilibrium; precisely for the realization of this principle must the full rights of women be strengthened. One should not think that this will benefit only women; it will promote world equilibrium, and thus is necessary for harmonious evolution.
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, 38. (1938)
- To all these insanities will be added the most shameful—the intensified competition between male and female. We insist upon equal and full rights for women, but the servants of darkness will expel them from many fields of activity, even where they bring the most benefit. We have spoken about the many maladies in the world, but the renewed struggle between the male and female principles will be the most tragic. It is hard to imagine how disastrous this will be, for it is a struggle against evolution itself! What a high price humanity pays for every such opposition to evolution! In these convulsions the young generations are corrupted. Plato spoke about beautiful thinking, but what kind of beauty is possible when there is hostility between man and woman? Now is the time to think about equal and full rights, but darkness invades the tensed realms.
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, 286. (1938)
- Keep in mind that the participation of a woman is particularly helpful... We have already spoken about the desirability of participation by women in scientific experiments. Ancient alchemists understood the full value of the feminine contribution, but today many scientists reject it. Because of this, the participation of women is frequently indirect, rather than direct. Nevertheless, the fundamental nature of things will attract women, and they will leave their mark in new discoveries. For this reason it is essential to change the status of women. The subtlety and refinement of women’s nature must be understood, so that they may achieve equal rights and the desired balance. It would be a sad mistake for women to replace soldiers on the battlefield, or perform heavy labor. When we are aware of the presence of valuable subtle energy we ought to be able to apply it accordingly. Thus, we once again come to the notion of true cooperation.
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, 458. (1938)
- We must find the right use for every ability. The era of the Mother of the World is not a return of the age of Amazons. A far greater, loftier, and more refined task is before us. One can observe that machines often function better, and plants can live longer, in the hands of women. Of course, I do not speak of all women, but of those exceptional ones who manifest the subtlest energy. Their abilities glorify the age of the Mother of the World, and relate closely to the realm of healing. And another quality belongs to woman—she manifests the highest degree of devotion. The greatest truths are revealed by her. Reality confirms this. Woman can ensure that new knowledge is properly applied.
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, 458. (1938)
- Every appeal for the renewal of life must address the needs of women and the young. Some people think that both of these aspects of life are secure, and are developing successfully, but in reality the position of woman and the education of the young are not at all in a satisfactory condition. Only a small number of women can assume equal rights in the conditions of life, and in most schools the foundations of a sound life are not taught. Evolution cannot proceed successfully when two pillars of support have not yet been made secure. It should not be thought that evolution proceeds under any conditions; it can be obstructed, and much precious energy will be wasted.
- Agni Yoga, Supermundane, 700. (1938)
- Divination seems heightened and raised to its highest power in woman.
- Amos Bronson Alcott, Concord Days (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1872), "Woman", p. 253
- For women, the best aphrodisiacs are words. The G-spot is in the ears. He who looks for it below there is wasting his time.
- Isabel Allende Of Love and Shadows (1984)
- Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.
- Henri Frederic Amiel, When a Woman Meets Jesus: Finding the Love Every Woman Longs For, Dorothy Valcarcel, p. 17.
- She could just pack up and leave, but she does not visualize what's beyond ahead.
- Núria Añó, Presage.
- Trust not to a maiden's word;
Trust not what a woman utters:
Lightness in their bosom dwells;
Like spinning-wheels, their hearts turn round.- Anonymous, Poetic Edda (Hávamál), as translated by W. Taylor in H. W. Longfellow, The Poets and Poetry of Europe, 2nd ed. (1870), p. 40
- I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women.
- Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution, Women's Suffrage Newspaper (Oct. 8, 1868)
- In his adolescence, he had discussed it with his father while they were weeding a field.
“About girls,” he had said.
“What about them?” his father asked.
“You know.”
His father sat back on his heels. “Treat her right and she’ll treat you right.”- Catherine Asaro, Aurora in Four Voices (1998), reprinted in David G. Hartwell (ed.), The Space Opera Renaissance, ISBN 0-765-30618-2, pp. 504-505
- Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as quoted in The Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (1993) by Lewis D. Eigen and Jonathan Paul Siegel, p. 424; also in Ataturk: First President and Founder of the Turkish Republic (2002) by Yüksel Atillasoy, p. 15.
- "Why do men feel threatened by women?" I asked a male friend of mine. (I love that wonderful rhetorical device, "a male friend of mine." It's often used by female journalists when they want to say something particularly bitchy but don't want to be held responsible for it themselves. It also lets people know that you do have male friends, that you aren't one of those fire-breathing mythical monsters, The Radical Feminists, who walk around with little pairs of scissors and kick men in the shins if they open doors for you. "A male friend of mine" also gives — let us admit it — a certain weight to the opinions expressed.) So this male friend of mine, who does by the way exist, conveniently entered into the following dialogue. "I mean," I said, "men are bigger, most of the time, they can run faster, strangle better, and they have on the average a lot more money and power." "They're afraid women will laugh at them," he said. "Undercut their world view." Then I asked some women students in a quickie poetry seminar I was giving, "Why do women feel threatened by men?" "They're afraid of being killed," they said.
- While Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and head of the Wikimedia Foundation (the website's nonprofit fundraising arm), still holds sway in the Wikipedia editors’ community, he renounced his formal Wikipedia powers long ago in response to community dissatisfaction with some unilateral actions he had taken. Consequently, he can only exert soft power over Wikipedia through his prestige, as when he raised the issue of female American novelists being removed from the "American novelists" category and relegated to the "American women novelists" category, after the New York Times called attention to the move.
But beneath its reasonably serene surface, the website can be as ugly and bitter as 4chan and as mind-numbingly bureaucratic as a Kafka story. And it can be particularly unwelcoming to women.
- It seems that most religions are obsessed with sex. They assume that if a religious male sees a woman, whatever her age and looks, he is aroused and cannot think about anything else. So, logically, women must be hidden away.
- Uri Avnery talking about gender segregation at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Women of the Wall (18 May 2013)
- But women aren’t like, like…computers or suh’m. You can’t just get an access code and then programme em to do what you want em to. Trust me. About three billion guys’ve had to learn the same lesson.
- Malcolm Azania, The Alchemists of Kush (2011), ISBN 978-1-73722-774-8, p. 114
B
edit- But woman's grief is like a summer storm,
Short as it violent is.- Joanna Baillie, Count Basil (1798), Act V, scene 3; in A Series of Plays.
- "I open my east chamber door,
And sit on my west chamber bed.
I take off my battle cloak,
And put on my old-time clothes.
I adjust my wispy hair at the window sill,
And apply my bisque makeup by the mirror.
I step out to see my comrades-in-arms,
They are all surprised and astounded:
'We travelled twelve years together,
Yet didn't realise Mulan was a lady!'"
The buck bounds here and there,
Whilst the doe has narrow eyes.
But when the two rabbits run side by side,
How can you tell the female from the male?- Ballad of Mulan, first transcribed in the Musical Records of Old and New in the 6th century.
- You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man's rib; she was really made from his funny bone.
- J. M. Barrie, What Every Woman Knows (1908).
- One of the wonderful things about being a woman reaching middle age in the 1990s is that, having grown up during the era of women's liberation, you do not foolishly allow yourself to be constrained by mindless outdated sexist stereotypical notions of what "beauty" is. Right, women? You don't feel insecure about growing older! If you glance in the mirror and happen to notice that you've developed crow's-feet formations the size of the Mekong River Delta, you just laugh gaily and say, "Thank goodness I do not foolishly allow myself to be constrained by mindless outdated sexist stereotypical notions of waaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHH (sob) (choke) (sound of wrists being slit)." Because let's not kid ourselves: Modern women are no more free from stereotypical notions about beauty than modern men are free from the primal male belief that if you let another male cut in front of you in traffic, this is proof that he has a larger penis.
- Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 35
- And so now here you are, at the beach, stuck in a body that looks somehow alien to you, a body that seems so large that you're afraid to go swimming for fear that the Coast Guard will attempt to board you, and this is at least partly the fault of your husband, who promised to stick by you in thickness as well as health and who has not maintained his own body in exactly Olympic-diver condition, and the son of a bitch has the nerve to sit right next to you and stare at this bimbo so hard that his eyeballs have actually left their sockets and are crawling, crablike, across the sand. Not that you are bitter.
- Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 37
- Oh, sure, the women's magazines keep saying that it's no longer important to look young, that maturity is "in." But they never use normal mature women to illustrate this point. They use women such as Sophia Loren, an obvious genetic mutation who will continue to have the skin of a child long after the Earth has crashed into the sun. Or they use Jane Fonda, who is so obsessed with remaining inhumanly taut by working out ninety-two hours a day that it took her more than a decade to notice that she was married to a dweeb. Or they use Cher, for God's sake, a woman who has had so much cosmetic surgery that, for ease of maintenance, many of her body parts are attached with Velcro.
So we have to face up to the fact that there is still a flagrant double standard, wherein porky gray men like Raymond Burr are considered physically attractive, whereas women are considered over the hill moments after they reach puberty. Of course you already know this, which is why, like most middle-aged women, you're probably determined to battle the aging process into death and beyond if necessary. Fortunately, thanks to selfless, caring people who make up the cosmetics industry, it is now possible for you to remain surprisingly youthful-looking for at least a little longer, with no more of a daily investment in time and money than would be required to build a working steam locomotive by hand.- Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 37-38
- Then, my good girls, be more than women, wise:
At least be more than I was; and be sure
You credit anything the light gives life to
Before a man.- Beaumont and Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy (c. 1609; published 1619), Act II, scene 2.
- The subjection of women in Western lands is wholly due to Christianity. Among the Teutons women were honoured, and held a noble and dignified place in the tribe; Christianity brought with it the evil Eastern habit of regarding women as intended for the toys and drudges of man, and intensified it with a special spite against them, as the daughters of Eve, who was first "deceived." Strangely different to the *general Eastern feeling and showing a truer and nobler view of life, is the precept of Manu: Where women are honoured, there the deities are pleased; but where they are dishonoured, there all religious acts become fruitless.
- Annie Besant, in Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History
- FEMALE, n. One of the opposing, or unfair, sex.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
- Woman... She it was who first took man to the Tree of Knowledge, and made him know Good and Evil; and, if she had been let alone and allowed to do what she wished, she would have led him to the Tree of Life and thus rendered him immortal.
- Where two women meet, there a market springs; where three congregate, a bazaar is opened; and where seven talk, there begins a fair.
- We tend to get dismissed a lot more easily. People jump to the conclusion that we’re histrionic females.
- Dr. Linda Bluestein, a Colorado-based physician Millions have the same 'bendy body' disease as my daughter. Why isn’t the medical profession paying more attention? (By Sarah Lazarus, CNN Updated 3:11 AM EST, Sat December 24, 2022)
- Las mujeres son el impuesto que pagamos por el placer.
- Women are the tax we pay on pleasure.
- Adolfo Bioy Casares, Una muñeca rusa, 1991.
- Next to God, we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth having.
- Christian Nestell Bovee, Thoughts, Feelings, and Fancies (1857), p. 308.
- They talk about a woman's sphere as though it had a limit;
There's not a place in Earth or Heaven,
There's not a task to mankind given,
There's not a blessing or a woe,
There's not a whispered yes or no,
There's not a life, or death, or birth,
That has a feather's weight or worth—
Without a woman in it.- C. E. Bowman, "The Sphere of Woman" in Joseph M. Chapple, Heart Throbs in Prose and Verse (1905), p. 343. A similar version:
They talk about 'a woman's sphere'
As though it has a limit;
There's not a spot on sea or shore,
In sanctum, office, shop or store,
Without a woman in it.
Author unknown; reported in Jennie Day Haines, Sovereign Woman Versus Mere Man (1905), p. 50.
- C. E. Bowman, "The Sphere of Woman" in Joseph M. Chapple, Heart Throbs in Prose and Verse (1905), p. 343. A similar version:
- You forget too much
That every creature, female as the male,
Stands single in responsible act and thought,
As also in birth and death.- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book II, line 472.
- Of all cant in this most canting country, no species is at once more paltry and more dangerous than that which has been made the instrument of decrying female accomplishment. All that execrable twaddle about feminine retirement, and feminine ignorance, which we are doomed so often to hear, has done more towards making women scolds, and flirts, and scandal mongers, than people are well aware of....The soul of a woman is as fine an emanation from the Great Fountain of Spirit as that of a man.
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his review of Romance and Reality in The New Monthly Magazine (1832).
- Women are more powerful than they think. A mother's warmth is the essence of motivation. If we could liquefy the encouragement, care and compassion we deliver to our children it would surely fill an expanse greater than the Pacific
- Louise Burfitt-Dons, speech to Women's Institute, 2007.
- More than a billion women around the world want to emulate western women's lifestyles and are rapidly acquiring the material ability to do so. It is therefore vital that in our leadership we display some reserve and responsibility in our spending so that the world's finite resources will be available for our children, their children and their children's children
- Louise Burfitt-Dons, from a speech about the Hot Women Campaign. London, April 2008.
- There is equality in the office but not on the street.
- Louise Burfitt-Dons from a speech Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Westminster, 11th June 2013.
- It is a woman's reason to say I will do such a thing because I will.
- Jeremiah Burroughs, On Hosea, Volume IV (1652).
- Women wear the breeches.
- Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus to the Reader.
- Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that's false.- Lord Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809).
- Soft as the memory of buried love,
Pure as the prayer which childhood wafts above.- Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos (1813), Canto I, Stanza 6.
- She was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts,
Which terminated all.- Lord Byron, The Dream (1816), Stanza 2. "River of his Thought" from Dante—Purgatorio, XIII. 88.
- Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes,
Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.- Lord Byron, Beppo (1818), Stanza 45.
- The Niobe of nations! there she stands,
Childless and crownless, in her voiceless woe.- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV (1818), Stanza 79.
- Her stature tall—I hate a dumpy woman.
- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto I, Stanza 61.
- A lady with her daughters or her nieces
Shine like a guinea and seven-shilling pieces.- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto III, Stanza 60.
- I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse
The tyrant's wish, "that mankind only had
One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce;"
My wish is quite as wide, but not so bad,
And much more tender on the whole than fierce;
It being (not now, but only while a lad)
That womankind had but one rosy mouth,
To kiss them all at once, from North to South.- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto VI, Stanza 27.
- I've seen your stormy seas and stormy women,
And pity lovers rather more than seamen.- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto VI, Stanza 53.
- But she was a soft landscape of mild earth,
Where all was harmony, and calm, and quiet,
Luxuriant, budding; cheerful without mirth.- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto VI, Stanza 53.
- What a strange thing is man! and what a stranger
Is woman! What a whirlwind is her head,
And what a whirlpool full of depth and danger
Is all the rest about her.- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto IX, Stanza 64.
- And whether coldness, pride, or virtue dignify
A woman, so she's good, what does it signify?- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XIV, Stanza 57.
C
edit- A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets.
- James Cameron in Titanic(1997); lines by Gloria Stuart, portraying Rose Dawson Calvert
- The world was sad; the garden was a wild;
And man, the hermit, sigh'd—till woman smiled.- Thomas Campbell, Pleasures of Hope (1799), Part II, line 37.
- Of all the girls that are so smart,
There's none like pretty Sally.- Henry Carey, Sally in our Alley (c. 1725).
- Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.
- Economics has long struggled with diversity. Only about a third of economics doctorates go to women, and the gender gap is wider at senior levels of the profession. Racial and ethnic minorities — particularly African-Americans and Latinos — are even more underrepresented. And notably, the gender gap in economics is wider than in other social sciences and, at least by some measures, traditionally male-dominated fields such as science and math.
Certain subfields, like finance, have a particularly poor record of advancing women. A branch of the American Finance Association presented survey results in Atlanta that show barely 10 percent of tenured finance professors, and 16 percent of tenure-track faculty, are women. In economics as a whole, women accounted for about 23 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty in 2015.- Ben Casselman and Jim Tankersley, “Female Economists Push Their Field Toward a #MeToo Reckoning“, The New York Times, (Jan. 10, 2019).
- La muger que se determina á ser honrada entre un ejército de soldados lo puede ser.
- The woman who is resolved to be respected can make herself so even amidst an army of soldiers.
- Miguel de Cervantes, La Gitanilla (c. 1590-1612; published 1613).
- Women eat double than men. They have four times more wisdom than men, they have six times more courage, and eight times more sensual urge than men.
- Chanakya Section II Chanakya Niti.
- Let no man value at a little price
A virtuous woman's counsel; her wing'd spirit
Is feather'd oftentimes with heavenly words.- George Chapman, The Gentleman Usher (1606), Act IV, scene i.
- Woman is the crowning excellence of God's creation, the shadow of the gods. Man the god's creation only. Woman is light, man is shadow.
- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: From Bankim's novel Krishnakanta's Will, quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2001). Decolonizing the Hindu mind: Ideological development of Hindu revivalism. New Delhi: Rupa. p. 114-115
- At a certain point power becomes very frightening, and to really begin to reconstruct civilization means to really act in a powerful way. And power is the thing that women have been taught is a real taboo.
- Feminist artist Judy Chicago in an interview with Ann Stubbs on New York City's WBAI (1981)
- "There have been women I have loved … A lot, as discreetly as possible."
- Jacques Chirac, undated, quoted in "'Affair' story will continue to rumble" Christian Fraser, BBC News, 14 January 2014.
- We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman,—scorn'd! slighted! dismiss'd without a parting pang.
- Colley Cibber, Love's Last Shift (1696), Act IV, scene 1.
- [Woman is] the promise that cannot be kept; but it is precisely in this that [her] grace consists.
- Paul Claudel, The City (La Ville, 1893, revised version 1901), end of Act 3.
- Translation from Josef Pieper, Faith, Hope, Love (1986). San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997, p. 251.
- Women who want to work deserve to work. And whenever they are denied that opportunity, it’s not fair to them – and we all lose out. In a competitive 21st century global economy, we cannot afford to leave talent on the sidelines. When we leave people out or write them off, we not only shortchange them and their dreams, we shortchange our country and our own futures.
- Hillary Clinton, speech in Orlando, Florida. Transcript (September 21, 2016)
- Judaism recognized the home as being a co-partner with the synagogue in the nurturing of spirituality, and accorded the woman, as primary home-maker, the greatest consideration.
- Jeffrey Cohen, Following the Synagogue Service, Gnesia Publications, 1997, ISBN 0-946000-01-8, Chapter IV, p. 25
- Conservatives have a problem with women. For that matter, all men do.
- Ann Coulter The Cornell Review (1984), reported in Time (April 2005) and in Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter (2006) by Joe Maguire, p. 59.
- Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult…If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. If you maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented.
- Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.- William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697), Act III, scene 2.
- It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.
- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1902.
- Man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. And man was not created for the cause of the woman, but the woman for the cause of man; and therefore ought the woman to have a power upon her head.
- 1 Corinthians 11:8-10, St. Paul.
- Certum est enim: longos esse crines omnibus sed breves sensus mulieribus.
- One thing is certain: women have long hair, but short wits.
- Cosmas of Prague, Chronica Boemorum, Chapter IV.
D
edit- (Women's Liberation) ... is an ontological, spiritual revolution, pointing beyond the idolatries of sexist society and sparking creative action in and toward transcendence. The becoming of women implies universal human becoming. It has everything to do with the search for ultimate meaning and reality which some would call God. p. 6
- Mary Daly in Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation (1973)
- It requires a kick in the imagination, a wrenching of tired words, to realize that feminism is the final and therefore the first cause, and that this movement is movement. Realization of this is already the beginning of a qualitative leap in be-ing. For the philosophers of senescence 'the final cause' is in technical reason; it is the Father's plan, an endless flow of Xerox copies of the past. But the final cause that is movement is in our imaginative-cerebral-emotional-active-creative be-ing. p. 190
- Mary Daly in Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation (1973)
- I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.- David, 2 Samuel 1:26 (TNIV)
- If standards for feminism are created by those who have already ascended economic hierarchies and are attempting to make the last climb to the top, how is this relevant to women who are at the very bottom? Revolutionary hope resides precisely among those women who have been abandoned by history and who are now standing up and making their demands heard.
- Were there no women, men might live like gods.
- Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore (1604), Part I, Act III, scene 1.
- There's no music when a woman is in the concert.
- Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore (1604), Part II, Act IV, scene 3.
- Too many women throw themselves into romance because they're afraid of being single, then start making compromises and losing their identity. I won't do that.
- Julie Delpy, in Fast Food Dating Your 2 Cents, p. 86.
- A woman’s perfume tells more about her than her handwriting.
- Christian Dior, Gaille, Brandon (July 23, 2013). "List of 38 Famous Fashion Quotes and Sayings". BrandonGaille.com. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
- Women can shoot better, by and large, and they're easier to train because they don't have the inflated egos that a lot of men bring to these programs. Women will ask for help if they need it, and they will tell you what they think.
- Ben Dolan as quoted in “Women's Role in Combat: Is Ground Combat the Next Front?” by Sylvia Wan, Hohonu, University of Hawaii, vol.4, p.117.
- If Lincoln had an affair with a slave woman, it would be an outrage, but when Clinton does it with one of his staff, everyone is okay with it.
- Bob Dole Reported in Tom Crisp, The Book of Bob: Choice Words, Memorable Men (2007), p. 126
- My words of encouragement for women, for that to be given for women in the East, it is to have confidence and encourage them that they can accomplish Dharma just like the men; but in the West you have already realized the equality of women and men sometime ago, so I do not have to really encourage you – you already know that.
- Cherchez la femme.
- Find the woman.
- Alexandre Dumas, Les Mohicans de Paris (1854), Volume III, Chapter X, and elsewhere in the novel, Act III, scene 7, of the 1864 play. Probably from the Spanish. A common question of Charpes. See Revue des Deux Mondes, XI, 822.
- There are two findings that are difficult to accommodate from a feminist perspective: why violence rates are so high in lesbian relationships and why they are higher for past relationships with women than past relationship with men.
- Denis Dutton, Patriarchy And Wife Assault: The Ecological Fallacy, Violence and Victims, 1994, 9(2), pp. 125 – 140
- And, like another Helen, fir'd another Troy.
- John Dryden, Alexander's Feast (1697), line 154.
- She hugg'd the offender, and forgave the offence;
Sex to the last.- John Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia (1700), line 367.
E
edit- And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: who so pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
- Ecclesiastes 7, 26-29.
F
edit- Women and love are underpinnings. Examine them and you threaten the very structure of culture.
- Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. 1970. p. 126.
- Oh, woman, perfect woman! what distraction
Was meant to mankind when thou wast made a devil!
What an inviting hell invented.- John Fletcher, Comedy of Monsieur Thomas (c. 1610–16; published 1639), Act III, scene 1.
- Looking at almost 6,000 children's books published between 1900 and 2000, the study, led by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, found that males are central characters in 57% of children's books published each year, with just 31% having female central characters. Male animals are central characters in 23% of books per year, the study found, while female animals star in only 7.5%.
- Alison Flood, "Study finds huge gender imbalance in children's literature", The Guardian, (May 2011).
- I grudged her nothing except my company. But it has gone further, like the degradation of rural England: this afternoon (Sunday in Aprril) all the young men had women with them in far-flung cameradeie. If women ever wanted to be by themselves all would be well. But I don't believe they ever want to be, except for reasons of advertisement, and their instinct is never to let men be by themselves. This, I begin to see, is sex-war, and D.H.L. has seen it, in spite of a durable marriage, and is far more on the facts than Bernard Shaw and his Life Force.
- E. M. Forster, Commonplace Book, p. 59.
- One can run away from women, turn them out, or give in to them. No fourth course.
- E. M. Forster, Commonplace Book, p. 92.
- The extension of women's rights is the basic principle of all social progress.
- Charles Fourier, The Theory of the Four Movements and of the General Destinies (1808)
- The great question . . . which I have not been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?'
- Sigmund Freud, letter to Marie Bonaparte, quoted in Sigmund Freud, Life and Work, Ernest Jones (Hogarth Press, 1953).
G
edit- The ability to perceive the underlying humanity in everyone is an objective good. But the inability to understand your own life as a unique story with a particular context is ignorant. Women must be willing to ask themselves to what extent is any given narrative true for me? They also must be brutally honest with their answer.
- Jennifer Galardi, "Why Are Women Naturally Drawn To Toxic Leftist Beliefs?", The Federalist (April 15, 2024)
- 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 (4 October 1930)
- And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.- John Gay, Fables (1727), The Hare and Many Friends, line 41.
- 'Tis a woman that seduces all mankind;
By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.- John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (1728), Act I, scene 1.
- How happy could I be with either,
Were t'other dear charmer away!
But, while ye thus tease me together,
To neither a word will I say.- John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (1728), Act II, scene 2.
- If the heart of a man is depressed with cares,
The mist is dispell'd when a woman appears.- John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (1728), Act II.
- And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
- Genesis 3:15 KJV.
- This year, according to statistics published by the advocacy group Women and Hollywood, women comprised just 27 percent of creators, directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and directors of photography working in television. It’s a figure that’s actually fallen since last year. Women account for 40 percent of speaking characters on television, a figure that’s also dropped.
- Sophie Gilbert, “The Men of #MeToo Go Back to Work“, (Oct 12, 2018).
- At the same time, though, studio heads and producers have been relatively quick to welcome back actors, directors, and writers who’ve been accused of harassment and assault, particularly when their status makes them seem irreplaceable. It’s a dual-edged message: Don’t abuse your power, but if you do, you’ll still have a career. Part of the confusion comes down to the fact that these men are seen as invaluable because the stories they tell are still understood to have disproportionate worth. When the slate of new fall TV shows is filled with father-and-son buddy-cop stories and prison-break narratives and not one but two gentle, empathetic examinations of male grief, it’s harder to imagine how women writers and directors might step up to occupy a sudden void. When television and film are fixated on helping audiences find sympathy for troubled, selfish, cruel, brilliant men, it’s easier to believe that the troubled, brilliant men in real life also deserve empathy, forgiveness, and second chances. And so the tangible achievements one year into the #MeToo movement need to be considered hand in hand with the fact that the stories being told haven’t changed much at all, and neither have the people telling them. A true reckoning with structural disparities in the entertainment industry will demand something else as well: acknowledging that women’s voices and women’s stories are not only worth believing, but also worth hearing. At every level.
- Sophie Gilbert, “The Men of #MeToo Go Back to Work“, (Oct 12, 2018).
- First she ate only the outside skin of the fruit, and then, seeing that death did not fell her, she ate the fruit itself. Scarce had she finished, when she saw the Angel of Death before her. Expecting her end to come immediately, she resolved to make Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, too, lest he espouse another wife after her death. It required tears and lamentations on her part to prevail upon Adam to take the baleful step. Not yet satisfied, she gave of the fruit to all other living beings, that they, too, might be subject to death. All ate, and they all are mortal, with the exception of the bird malham, who refused the fruit, with the words: "Is it not enough that ye have sinned against God, and have brought death to others? Must ye still come to me and seek to persuade me into disobeying God's command, that I may eat and die thereof? I will not do your bidding."
- Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews volume I, chapter II
- ‘Thou shouldst not have obeyed her, for thou art the head, and not she.’ God, who knows all things, had foreseen exactly this, and He had not created Eve until Adam had asked Him for a helpmate, so that he might not have apparently good reason for reproaching God with having created woman.
- Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews volume I, chapter II
- The very differences between the sexes in garb and social forms go back to the origin of man and woman for their reasons. Woman covers her hair in token of Eve's having brought sin into the world; she tries to hide her shame; and women precede men in a funeral cortege, because it was woman who brought death into the world. And the religious commands addressed to women alone are connected with the history of Eve. Adam was the heave offering of the world, and Eve defiled it. As expiation, all women are commanded to separate a heave offering from the dough. And because woman extinguished the light of man's soul, she is bidden to kindle the Sabbath light.
- Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews volume I, chapter II
- The ministering spirits whose substance is of consuming fire, they all, at a distance of six hundred and fifty million and three hundred parasangs, noticed the presence of a human being, and they exclaimed: "Whence the odor of one born of woman? How comes he into the highest heaven of the fire-coruscating angels?"
- Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews volume I, chapter III
- [women are] far superior [to men] and always have been
- Did Author William Golding Say That ‘Women Are Far Superior’ to Men? according to snopes 25 May 2016
- According to a report by the Women’s Media Center, television viewers are less likely to see women reporting the news today than just a few years ago. At the Big Three networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—combined, men were responsible for reporting 75 percent of the evening news broadcasts over three months in 2016, while women were responsible for reporting only 25 percent—a drop from 32 percent two years earlier.
- Julianna Goldman, “It's Almost Impossible to Be a Mom in Television News”, The Atlantic, (Dec 4, 2018).
- “Even if it’s unspoken, there is a very clear expectation that you will maintain a certain appearance if you’re a woman,” the former CNN anchor and NBC News White House correspondent Campbell Brown told me. “The ability to maintain that appearance flies out the window when you get pregnant.”
- Julianna Goldman, “It's Almost Impossible to Be a Mom in Television News”, The Atlantic, (Dec 4, 2018).
- When lovely woman stoops to folly,
And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy?
What art can wash her guilt away?- Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Chapter XXIV.
- The influence of 15th century Italian scholasticism idealized women as angelic creatures, contributing to reinforce a limited typology of deminine angels in painting. A source of moral perfection, endowed with mystic virtues, the beautiful angel woman (donna angelicata) became an intermediary between men and God, a point of intersection between the human and the divine, thus fusing feminine and angelic qualities. The visual heritage of the Greek Nike, along with the ancient values of proportion and harmony in Greek ideals of beauty, reappeared during the Renaissance, contributing to the emergence of more feminine, diaphanous robes in 16th-century paintings, best exemplified by Botticelli's paintings. Nineteenth-century cemeteries house some morbid yet gracious female sculptures of angels, while Edward Burne-Iones portrays a few melancholy feminine angels wearing their hair up in The Morning of the Resurrection (Private collection, Christie's images).
- Sandra Gorgievski, "Face to Face with Angels: Images in Medieval Art and in Film, pp. 113-114
- Women are not men’s belongings.
- Uchiyama Gudō, Common Consciousness (1991), translated by Fabio Rambelli in Zen Anarchism: The Egalitarian Dharma of Uchiyama Gudō. Institute of Buddhist Studies. 2013. ISBN 978-1886439511.
- Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.
- Guerilla Girls, "Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?", Tate.org, 1989.
- The basic Buddhist stand on the question of equality between the genders is age-old. At the highest tantric levels, at the highest esoteric level, you must respect women: every woman.
- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama in: The New York Times Magazine, 1993, p. 54
H
edit- She who must be obeyed.
- H. Rider Haggard, She (1887).
- ...the nature of the work involved in the occupations does not seem to affect the willingness of women to enter it. Neither the hard physical work of the engineering occupations nor the austere living conditions of the air support skills appear to deter women from seeking to work in the jobs. Additionally, high-technology occupations that operate in relatively more comfortable circumstances do not necessarily draw women in greater numbers.
- Margaret C. Harrell, and others, The Status of Gender Integration in the Military: Analysis of Selected Occupations. Rand 2002. http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1380, xix; as quoted in “Women's Role in Combat: Is Ground Combat the Next Front?” by Sylvia Wan, Hohonu, University of Hawaii, vol.4, p.117.
- If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.
- Taj El-Din Hilaly Ethnic leaders condemn Muslim cleric October 2006.
- The women of the present race are approaching such a period in a cyclic round, and every woman who helps to save a man from his lower self by refusing to yield to the temptation her lower nature places in her way, thus proving the existence of a higher plane of life . . . does more to save the race to which both belong than any man, however great he may be, can possibly do in the present age. The coming epoch is the epoch of woman... The present cycle is woman's great opportunity, so again I appeal to you, daughters of the King, pray the God within to keep you clean.
- Hilarion, in Teachings of the Temple (1925)), pp. 250, quoted by Helena Roerich in Letters of Helena Roerich II
- Man has his will,—but woman has her way.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), Prologue.
- I confess that I do not understand the principle on which the power to fix a minimum for the wages of women can be denied by those who admit the power to fix a maximum for their hours of work. I fully assent to the proposition that here as elsewhere the distinctions of the law are distinctions of degree, but I perceive no difference in the kind or degree of interference with liberty, the only matter with which we have any concern, between the one case and the other. The bargain is equally affected whichever half you regulate…. It will need more than the Nineteenth Amendment to convince me that there are no differences between men and women, or that legislation cannot take those differences into account.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., dissenting, Adkins, et al., Constituting the Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia, v. Children's Hospital of the District of Columbia; Same v. Lyons, 261 U.S. 569–70 (1923).
- A woman without mettle is like a scabbard without a sword.
- Robert E. Howard, Swords of the Northern Sea (written c. 1929; published 1974)
- If our stereotype about women today is that women are the moral center of the home, they are the beacon of light that keeps men and women in line ... that idea is actually of relatively recent vintage, that stereotype about women's morality, that actually comes from the late 19th century ... the stereotype about women in the 1600s and 1700s was just the opposite — it held that we were naturally lustful and wanton, we are in need of male guidance ... in order to protect ourselves from our natural inclination and temptation into sin.
- Katherine Howe, "The Serious History Of Hocus Pocus In 'Penguin Book Of Witches'" NPR, (October 26, 2014)
- Women are the carriers of society’s values ... men are deviant in the sense that many of the qualities admired in them are also one’s that society has to regard with disapproval ... Women’s Lib portrays society and morality as a male invention to coerce and punish women ... [yet] women are a virtuous group seeking to impose their moral standards on men.
- Arianna Huffington, The Female Woman. London: Davis-Poynter. 1973. pp. 134-135. ISBN 0706700988.
- He took the rotundity of the moon, and the curves of creepers, and the clinging of tendrils, and the trembling of grass, and the slenderness of the reed, and the bloom of flowers, and the lightness of leaves, and the tapering of the elephant’s trunk, and the glances of deer, and the clustering of rows of bees, and the joyous gaiety of sunbeams, and the weeping of clouds, and the fickleness of the winds, and the timidity of the hare, and the vanity of the peacock, and the softness of the parrot’s bosom, and the hardness of adamant, and the sweetness of honey, and the cruelty of the tiger, and the warm glow of fire, and the coldness of snow, and the chattering of jays, and the cooing of the kokila, and the hypocrisy of the crane, and the fidelity of the chakravaka; and compounding all these together he made woman, and gave her to man.
- Creation of woman in a Hindu legend. Havell, Ideals, 91. As quoted in Will Durant Our Oriental Heritage : India and Her Neighbors.
I
edit- Men may rule the world, but women rule the men who rule the world.
- Chinweizu Ibekwe, The Anatomy of Female Power. 1990.
- A growing and extremely vocal group [had taken issue with Goldstein’s military service]. Our focus at INSPIRE has been and will always be to create safe spaces to honour, share, and celebrate the remarkable stories of women and non-binary individuals. In recognition of the current situation and the sensitivity of the conflict in the Middle East, the Board of INSPIRE will be changing our keynote speaker
- organizers of INSPIRE according to Jewish B.C. cyclist disinvited from International Women's Day event because of IDF service (February 20, 2024)
J
edit- To make women learned, and foxes tame, hath the same operation, which teacheth them to steale more cuningly, but the possibility is not equall, for when it doth one good, it doth twenty harme.
- Attributed to James I of England; reported in Thomas Overbury, Edward Francis Rimbault, The Miscellaneous Works in Prose and Verse of Sir Thomas Overbury (1856), p. 261.
- In every disadvantage that a woman suffers at the hands of a man, there is inevitably, in what concerns the man, an element of cowardice. When I say "inevitably," I mean that this is what the woman sees in it.
- Henry James, Confidence (1879), Chapter XIX.
- Were Women all like those whom here I name,
Woman to man I surely would prefer;
The Sun is feminine, nor deems it shame;
The Moon, though masculine, depends on her.- Jami, alluding to Rabia of Basra, Nafahat al-Uns, as quoted in A Literary History of Persia by E. G. Browne, p. 299.
- Women strangely hug the knife that stabs them.
- Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (1889).
- And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
- Wretched, un-idea'd girls.
- Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1752).
K
edit- Women have fantastic intuition. I think they come more naturally to grace; tenderness and affection are considered feminine qualities. It's important for men to learn from women those characteristics that don't come as naturally to us. I think my father was raised in a time when those things were taught to be signs of weakness; that is, if you were sensitive and aware in a different way from just the macho version. It's wonderful that that's changing.
- Val Kilmer, "(Man)ifesto: Val Kilmer on Compassion—and Kissing Angelina Jolie" by Kristin Coronado, Redbook (December 2004), p. 30.
- A Nation spoke to a Nation,
A Queen sent word to a Throne:
'Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own.
The gates are mine to open,
As the gates are mine to close,
And I set my house in order,'
Said our Lady of the Snows.- Rudyard Kipling, "Our Lady of the Snows", stanza 1, The Collected Works of Rudyard Kipling: The Seven Seas, The Five Nations, The Years Between (1941, reprinted 1970), vol. 26, p. 227. The poem is about the Canadian preferential tariff of 1897.
- For men must work and women must weep,
And the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep,
And good-bye to the bar and its moaning.- Charles Kingsley, Three Fishers Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 907-11
- But when it comes to their relative strengths, in almost all the countries—all except Romania and Lebanon—boys’ best subject was science, and girls’ was reading. (That is, even if an average girl was as good as an average boy at science, she was still likely to be even better at reading.) Across all [countries, 24 percent of girls had science as their best subject, 25 percent of girls’ strength was math, and 51 percent excelled in reading. For boys, the percentages were 38 for science, 42 for math, and 20 for reading. And the more gender-equal the country, as measured by the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, the larger this gap between boys and girls in having science as their best subject.
- Olga Khazan, "The More Gender Equality, the Fewer Women in STEM", The Atlantic, Feb 18, 2018.
- Woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man, not to rule and command him.
- I think girls tend to like RPGs, like Final Fantasy. Girls who play games like that seem to get more of a desire to work in this field. I usually don't think to make games strictly for a female audience, myself, but I think my RPGs attract a larger female audience. Violent, war-themed titles seem to attract an overwhelmingly male audience. I think if companies want to get more girls to play their games, they should keep this in mind.
- Reiko Kodama, "Interview Reiko Kodama", The-nextlevel.com.
L
edit- Every phase of our life belongs to us. The moon does not, except in appearance, lose her first thin, luminous curve, nor her silvery crescent, in rounding to her full. The woman is still both child and girl, in the completeness of womanly character. We have a right to our entire selves, through all the changes of this mortal state, a claim which we shall doubtless carry along with us into the unfolding mysteries of our eternal being. Perhaps in this thought lies hidden the secret of immortal youth: for a seer has said that "to grow old in heaven is to grow young."
- Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood: Outlined from Memory, 1889, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. 7
- There's three things in a Woman's life that should never be empty, her heart, bed and glass.
- Michael Lieber, The War Hero (Novel) Chapter Three - p93 - Freddie
- What! still retaining your Utopian visions of female felicity? To talk of our happiness!—ours, the ill-used and oppressed! You remind me of the ancient tyrant, who, seeing his slaves sink under the weight of their chains, said, 'Do look at the indolent repose of those people!'
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality (1831,) Vol II, page 174
- Whenever I hear a man talking of the advantages of our ill-used sex, I look upon it as the prelude to some new act of authority.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality (1831), Vol I, page 95
- A woman only can understand a woman; and it is pleasant to be understood sometimes.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara (1834), Vol. III, Chapter 26
- A woman's life is nine parts mess to one part magic ... and the parts that look like magic often turn out to be the messiest of all.
- Cersei Lannister, in George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings, Ch. Sansa (IV)
- Woman, a pleasing but a short-lived flow’r,
Too soft for business and too weak for pow’r:
A wife in bondage, or neglected maid;
Despised, if ugly; if she’s fair, betrayed.- Mary Leapor, An Essay on Woman (c. 1746)
- Empowerment feminism is a cynical sham. As Margaret Talbot once noted in these pages, “To change a Bratz doll’s shoes, you have to snap off its feet at the ankles.” That is pretty much what girlhood feels like. In a 2014 study, girls between four and seven were asked about possible careers for boys and girls after playing with either Fashion Barbie, Doctor Barbie, or, as a control, Mrs. Potato Head. The girls who had played with Mrs. Potato Head were significantly more likely to answer yes to the question “Could you do this job when you grow up?” when shown a picture of the workplaces of a construction worker, a firefighter, a pilot, a doctor, and a police officer. The study had a tiny sample size, and, like most slightly nutty research in the field of social psychology, has never been replicated, or scaled up, except that, since nearly all American girls own a Barbie, the population of American girls has been the subject of the scaled-up version of that experiment for nearly six decades.
- Jill Lepore, "When Barbie Went to War with Bratz", The New Yorker, (January 22, 2018).
- It’s no accident that #Metoo started in the entertainment and television-news businesses, where women are required to look as much like Barbie and Bratz dolls as possible, with the help of personal trainers, makeup artists, hair stylists, personal shoppers, and surgeons.
- Jill Lepore, "When Barbie Went to War with Bratz", The New Yorker, (January 22, 2018).
- We were completely aware of how different X-Men:TAS was regarding women. First, the series existed because Fox Kids Network president Margaret Loesch willed it into being. Second, everyone on the creative side had been working in the TV animation business for years, and we were tired of putting up with its many stupid, constraining rules, one of which was that in “boys’ adventure” series, the audience is almost all boys and they won’t watch female heroes.
- Eric Lewald in “INTERVIEW: X-Men: TAS story editor & writer Eric Lewald on X-Men:TAS Book” by TAIMUR DAR, THE BEAT, (10/02/2017).
- The Great Mother archetype was very important in the Western world from the dawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today. But this archetype has been violently repressed in the West for at least 5,000 years starting with the Indo-European invasions - reinforced by the anti-Goddess view of Judeo-Christianity, culminating with three centuries of witch hunts - all the way to the Victorian era... The Great Mother... specifically symbolizes planet Earth - fertility, nature, the flow of abundance in all aspects of life. Someone who has assimilated the Great Mother archetype trusts in the abundance of the universe. It's when you lack trust that you want a big bank account... If a society is afraid of scarcity, it will actually create... fear of scarcity... We have been living for a long time under the belief that we need to create scarcity to create value. Although that is valid in some material domains, we extrapolate it to other domains where it may not be valid. For example, there's nothing to prevent us from freely distributing information. The marginal cost of information today is practically nil. Nevertheless, we invent copyrights and patents in an attempt to keep it scarce. So fear of scarcity creates greed and hoarding, which in turn creates the scarcity that was feared. Whereas cultures that embody the Great Mother are based on abundance and generosity.
- The life of woman is full of woe,
Toiling on and on and on,
With breaking heart, and tearful eyes,
The secret longings that arise,
Which this world never satisfies!
Some more, some less, but of the whole
Not one quite happy, no, not one!- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus (1872), The Golden Legend.
- A Lady with a lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
* A noble type of good,
* Heroic womanhood.- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Santa Filomena (1858), Stanza 10.
- Like a fair lily on a river floating
She floats upon the river of his thoughts.- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Spanish Student (1843), Act II, scene 3. Idea taken from Dante, Purgatorio (early 14th century), XIII. 88.
- I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
- Audre Lorde, The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0-89594-142-8.
- A woman’s dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.” ― Sophia Loren
- Sophia Loren, Gaille, Brandon (July 23, 2013). "List of 38 Famous Fashion Quotes and Sayings". BrandonGaille.com. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
- Women and girls begin to bare themselves behind and in front, and there is nobody to punish and hold in check, and besides, God’s word is mocked.
- To His Housewife (An Seine Hausfrau), end of July 1545, De Wette, vol. v (Fünfter Theil, 1828), p. 753. No. MMCCLXXXVI [1] McGiffert, P.374 (English tr.).
- Martin Luther, McGiffert, Arthur Cushman. Martin Luther: The Man and His Work (Century, 1911), from Google Books. Reprint from Kessinger Publishing (July 2003), ISBN 076617431X
- Few are the women and maidens who would let themselves think that one could at the same time be joyous and modest. They are all bold and coarse in their speech, in their demeanor wild and lewd. That is now the fashion of being in good cheer. But it is specially evil that the young maiden folk are exceedingly bold of speech and bearing, and curse like troopers, to say nothing of their shameful words and scandalous coarse sayings, which one always hears and learns from another.
- The First Sermon on the Day of the Visitation of Mary (Die erste Predigt am Tag der Heimsuchung Mariä). (1532).
- Martin Luther, Denifle, Heinrich, Luther and Lutherdom, vol.1, part 1, tr. from 2nd rev. ed. of German by Raymund Volz, Somerset, England: Torch Press, 1917, (Cornell University Library 2009), ISBN 1112168176 ISBN 9781112168178, p. 305. Denifle cites Luther’s Sämtliche Werke (Vols 4-6 in 1), Erlangen-Frankfurt edition, 1865, Heyder & Zimmer, vol. vi, p. 401.
M
edit- A woman can only be superior as a woman; as soon as she wants to emulate man, she is nothing but an ape.
- Joseph de Maistre, letter to his daughter Constance de Maistre, Lettres, 146
- A male hero, at best, lacks the qualities of maternal love and tenderness which are as essential to a normal child as the breath of life. Suppose your child's ideal becomes a superman who uses his extraordinary power to help the weak. The most important ingredient in the human happiness recipe still is missing - love. It's smart to be strong. It's big to be generous. But it's sissified according to exclusively masculine rules, to be tender, loving affectionate, and alluring. "Aw, that;'s girls stuff!" snorts our young comics reader. "Who wants to be a girl?" And that's the point. Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.
- William Moulton Marston The Secret History of Wonder Woman, (2014) by Jill Lepore [2]
- No woman, no cry.
- Bob Marley, song No Woman, No Cry, from the album Natty Dread (1974).
- Of a woman are we conceived,
Of a woman are we born,
To a woman are we betrothed and married,
It is a woman who keeps the race going,
Another companion is sought when the life-partner dies,
Through a woman are established social ties.
Why should we consider woman cursed and condemned,
When from woman are born leaders and rulers.
From woman alone is born a woman,
Without woman there can be no human birth.
Without woman, O Nanak, only the True One exists.
Be it man or be it woman,
Only those who sing His glory
Are blessed and radiant with His Beauty,
In His Presence and with His grace
They appear with a radiant face.
- Raag Aasaa Mehal 1, p. 473; in Aad Guru Granth Sahib (1983 edition by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee); also in Guru Nanak and His Times (1971) by Anil Chandra Banerjee, p. 78
- Believe me Delmar, woman is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man.
- Ulysses McGill, O Brother, Where Art Thou? ' (2000).
- A woman's place is in the House and the Senate.
- Although Florida Representative Carrie Meek may or may not have said it herself, one thing that is clear that she was photographed in the Florida House chamber with the slogan on her t-shirt around the year 1980 during her second year in the Florida House at the start of her career.[1] Meek would later get elected in 1981 to the Florida Senate and became the first African American since the Reconstruction era to represent Florida in the United States Congress in 1992 when she was voted in as a member of the United States Senate[2]. Another politician, Tennessee's Anna Belle Clement O'Brien was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1976 with the variant slogan "A woman's place is in the House … and the Senate too!"[3]
- On one issue, at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women.
- H. L. Mencken, A Little Book in C Major (1916), p. 59.
- I expect that woman will be the last thing civilized by man.
- George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), first page.
- My latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book V, line 18.
- Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 488.
- For nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good.- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IX, line 232.
- Oh! why did God,
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven
With Spirits masculine, create at last
This novelty on Earth, this fair defect
Of Nature, and not fill the World at once
With men as Angels, without feminine.- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book X, line 888.
- A bevy of fair women.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book XI, line 582.
- O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have right over you. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers.
- Muhammad, The Last Sermon of Muhammad delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul Hijjah 10 A.H (c. 630 AD)
- If they [women] were not fundamentally evil, they would not have been born women at all.
- The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu
- If all women were like as the one we have lost,
Then women would be preferred to men.
For the feminine gender is no shame for the sun,
Nor is the masculine gender an honor for the crescent moon
- Personally, I feel that while there is much beauty presenced here on Earth, nothing can equal the beauty a woman can and does presence when we through love share a life with her.
- Some Questions for DWM (March 2014), David Myatt
N
edit- Let man fear woman when she hateth: for man in his innermost soul is merely evil; woman, however, is mean.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1853-1855.
- The same emotions are in man and woman, but in different TEMPO, on that account man and woman never cease to misunderstand each other
- In revenge and in love woman is more barbarous than man.
- … woman would like to believe that love can do EVERYTHING -- it is the SUPERSTITION peculiar to her. Alas, he who knows the heart finds how poor, helpless, pretentious, and blundering even the best and deepest love is -- he finds that it rather DESTROYS than saves!
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886).
- Man should be trained for war and woman for the recreation of the warrior.
- As quoted by Joseph Goebbels as reported by Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will, Men Women and Rape, (1975) note 3, at 48. the original statement was attributed to Nietzsche.; as quoted in War Crimes Against Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals, Kelly Dawn Askin, (1997), p.49.
- I have read half your book thro’, and am immensely charmed by it. But some things I disagree with and more I do not understand. This does not apply to the characters, but your conclusions, e.g. you say “women are more sympathetic than men”.
Now if I were to write a book out of my experience, I should begin Women have no sympathy. Yours is the tradition. Mine is the conviction of experience.[...]
Now look at my experience of men. A statesman, past middle age, absorbed in politics for a quarter of a century, out of sympathy with me, remodels his whole life and policy - learns a science the driest, the most technical, the most difficult, that of administration, as far as it concerns the lives of men - not, as I learnt it, in the field from stirring experience, but by writing dry regulations in a London room by my sofa with me. This is what I call real sympathy.[...]
I only mention three whose whole lives were remodeled by sympathy for me. But I could mention very many others. I have never found one woman who altered her life by one iota for me or my opinions.[...]
Women crave for being loved, not for loving. They scream out at you for sympathy all day long, they are incapable of giving any in return, for they cannot remember your affairs long enough to do so...They cannot state a fact accurately to another, nor can that other attend to it accurately enough for it to become information. Now is not all this the result of want of sympathy? - Florence Nightengale, letter to Mary Elizabeth Mohl, December 13, 1861, as quoted in The Life of Florence Nightengale: 1862-1910 by Sir Edward Tyas Cook (1914), pp 14-15
- On aime plus âprement que l'on ne hait.
- Translation: We women love more bitterly than we hate.
- Anna de Noailles, Poème de l'amour (1924), CII.
- In context the "on" refers to "woman".
- Sisters, don't call yourself 'housewife'. Because in Islam, women are not considered as the 'wife of the house', rather they are homemakers.
- If modernity means raping women, then Islam is outdated.
O
edit- I am convinced that our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons. Our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity - men and women - to reach their full potential.
- Barack Obama, "A New Beginning", speech at Cairo University (June 4, 2009).
- You know, today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it's an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work.
- Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 in the State of the Union address
- We know that women gamers face harassment and stalking and threats of violence from other players. When they speak out about their experiences, they're attacked on Twitter and other social media outlets, even threatened in their homes. And what's brought these issues to light is that there are a lot of women out there, especially young women, who are speaking out bravely about their experiences, even when they know they'll be attacked for it.
- Barack Obama, (March 16, 2016). Remarks by the President at Reception in Honor of Women's History Month (Speech). Washington, DC. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
- I think it’s great that we have multiple female presidential candidates, so there’s not the woman running... I’m very excited about there being multiple women... that can represent different parts of the political spectrum on the left, so that’s something that I’m thankful for... what we’re trying to do is is frame the debate and the conversation... that we’re going to be having in the next two years...
- When I was 13, I told my parents I didn’t believe in God any more. I wanted to be an atheist because I believed that religion should be about community and having a place to go in prayer, not something that should determine women’s freedoms.
- Elizabeth Olsen "Elizabeth Olsen cover interview for Dazed&Confused". (September 2, 2013) Ryder, Caroline
- Everything takes a different flavour when a woman does it.
- Orlan "Orlan's art of sex and surgery", by Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian, 1 July, 2003.
- As for some characters being dead and then alive again -- that happens to both genders in comics. Look at Wonder Man. The thing that, to my mind, separates the male and female characters are the sex crimes. Only the female characters are victims of sex crimes; male characters are never subjected to that. (There may be one or two exceptions when the male character was sexually abused as a child, but that's about it.) It is the number and frequency of THAT which troubles me. (...) A female soldier in battle may suffer wounds; that's different than a woman being stalked, kidnapped, and having violence done to her in civilian life. The former incurs the physical damage because of her occupation; the latter, strictly because of her gender. A female cop may be shot because she is a cop, not because she is a female. That, to me, is part of the difference.
P
edit- Feminism has exceeded its proper mission of seeking political equality for women and has ended by rejecting contingency, that is, human limitation by nature or fate.
- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae (1990) p. 3
- Male mastery in marriage is a social illusion, nurtured by women exhorting their creations to play and walk. At the emotional heart of every marriage is a pietà of mother and son.
- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae (1990) p. 53
- In 'A Room of One's Own', Virginia Woolf satirically describes her perplexity at the bulging card catalog of the British Museum: why, she asks, are there so many books written by men about women but none by women about men? The answer to her question is that from the beginning of time men have been struggling with the threat of woman's dominance.
- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae (1990) p. 295
- Women have been discouraged from genres such as sculpture that require studio training or expensive materials. But in philosophy, mathematics, and poetry, the only materials are pen and paper. Male conspiracy cannot explain all female failures. I am convinced that, even without restrictions, there still would have been no female Pascal, Milton, or Kant. Genius is not checked by social obstacles: it will overcome. Men's egotism, so disgusting in the talentless, is the source of their greatness as a sex. [...] Even now, with all vocations open, I marvel at the rarity of the woman driven by artistic or intellectual obsession, that self-mutilating derangement of social relationship which, in its alternate forms of crime and ideation, is the disgrace and glory of the human species.
- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae (1990) p. 653
- The feminist line is, strippers and topless dancers are degraded, subordinated, and enslaved; they are victims, turned into objects by the display of their anatomy. But women are far from being victims — women rule; they are in total control … the feminist analysis of prostitution says that men are using money as power over women. I'd say, yes, that's all that men have. The money is a confession of weakness. They have to buy women's attention. It's not a sign of power; it's a sign of weakness.
- Camille Paglia, As quoted in Sexuality and Gender (2002) by Christine R. Williams and Arlene Stein, p. 213
- “At birth, boys outnumber girls everywhere in the world, by much the same proportion – there are around 105 or 106 male children for every 100 female children. Just why the biology of reproduction leads to this result remains a subject of debate. But after birth, biology seems on the whole to favour women. Considerable research has shown that if men and women receive similar nutritional ad medical attention and general health care, women tend to live noticeably longer than men. Women seem to be, on the whole, more resistant to disease and in general hardier than men, an advantage they enjoy not only after they are forty years old but also at the beginning of life, especially during the months immediately following birth, and even in the womb. When given the same care as males, females tend to have better survival rates than males.”
- "Prenatal sex selection" (PDF). Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. p.6 Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- Patience makes a woman beautiful in middle age.
- Attributed to Elliot Paul. Reported as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).
- There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- Paul of Tarsus, Galatians 3:28, The Holy Bible.
- What I think about this is the guys have good intentions, to use more female characters, and they try consciously to make them strong and positive role models and all that good stuff, but unconsciously it's very hard for many men to see women as something other than victims. (...) And where it comes from in many men is that men are real and women are vehicles for men's needs. One of those needs is to feel strong emotions such as grief, anger, pain, maturity. There are any number of movies and books in which a weak man becomes a hero, or faces up to life, because a woman has been raped or murdered or has committed suicide. Did the writer realize he was (once more) victimizing women? (...) I just checked out the web site after all, to see the reactions of (some of) the other creators. It was interesting to see how many of the men felt called on to defend (or apologize for) their own murdered female characters. You know, I assume, of the point made by people like Trina Robbins that the powers of female characters in the '60s showed a good deal about the male creators-- a "girl" who turns invisible, another who makes herself tiny and buzzes around men annoyingly (when she's not shopping)...
- Most women have no characters at all.
- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 2.
- Ladies, like variegated tulips, show
'Tis to their changes half their charms we owe.- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 41.
- Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live.- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 137.
- Men some to business, some to pleasure take;
But every woman is at heart a rake;
Men some to quiet, some to public strife;
But every lady would be queen for life.- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 215.
- O! bless'd with temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day;
She who can own a sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules.
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her humour most when she obeys.- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 257.
- And mistress of herself, though china fall.
- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 268.
- Woman's at best a contradiction still.
- Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle II, line 270.
- It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.
- Proverbs, 21:19, English Standard Version
- If most women knew they were sacrificing the freedom, provision, and safety of full-time mothering to be a gypped gas station attendant or “Office Space”-style paper-pusher, far more would choose full-time motherhood. To make it easier for themselves to reach the C-suite and the Oval Office, elite women sell their lower-class sisters glamorous false promises of “Boss Babe.” This is another reason we should reject feminism: it damages women.
- Joy Pullmann, "A Few Ideas For Women Who Don’t Want To End Up Childless", The Federalist (September 6, 2024)
Q
edit- Men are the masters over women, because it is God who has dignified some of them to others and with what they spend out of their wealth. So the good women are obedient, guarding the unseen as God has guarded. And (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the beds and chastise them. So if they obey you, seek not a way against them Surely God is ever Exalted, Great.
- Quran 4:34
- Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.
- Quran 4:34 M. M. Pickthall translation
R
edit- I am woman, hear me roar.
- Helen Reddy and Ray Burton, I Am Woman (song), 1972.
- Sexism in media partly involves the portrayal of both men and women in ways that are consistent with prevailing stereotypes. Illustrating this sexism, men are more likely to appear in prime-time programing than women, and when women are shown, they are less likely to be shown working outside the home and more likely to be shown in a romantic relationship (Signorielli, 1989). Lauzen, Dozier, and Horan (2008) similarly found that women were underrepresented in prime-time shows and were more likely to be shown in interpersonal or social roles, while men were more likely to be portrayed in work roles. This underrepresentation of women even pervades television commercials, where women not only appear less, but are also more likely to be portrayed as secondary characters supporting a male character when they are present (Ganahl, Prinsen, & Netzley, 2003). The same trend holds true for video games, where female characters are less likely to be heroes or main characters and, when they are included, they tend to dress in a manner consistent with stereotypes (Dietz, 1998). Female (vs. male) video game characters are also more likely to be sexualized and scantily dressed, while male characters tend to be hypermasculine and violent (Dill & Thill, 2007). And, consistent with research on other media effects, sexist content does affect consumers in a content-consistent manner. For example, media consumption in general (Swami et al., 2010) and frequency of playing sexist video games specifically are both associated with greater benevolent sexism (Stermer & Burkley, 2015). In another study, greater video game playing over one's lifetime was found to correlate with hostile sexism (Fox & Potocki, 2016). Together, the research shows that the way gender roles are portrayed in media can influence consumers’ own attitudes.
- "Examination of Anime Content and Associations between Anime Consumption, Genre Preferences, and Ambivalent Sexism", Stephen Reysen, Iva Katzarska-Miller, Courtney N. Plante, Sharon E. Roberts, Kathleen C. Gerbasi, The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, (August 2017).
- Such a plot must have a woman in it.
- Samuel Richardson, Sir Charles Grandison (1753–1754), Volume I. Letter 24.
- In her striving toward education, woman must remember that all educational systems are only the means for the development of a higher knowledge and culture. The true culture of thought is developed by the culture of spirit and heart. Only such a combination gives that great synthesis without which it is impossible to realize the real grandeur, diversity, and complexity of human life in its cosmic evolution. Therefore, while striving to knowledge, may woman remember the Source of Light and the Leaders of Spirit—those great Minds who, verily, created the consciousness of humanity. In approaching this Source, this leading Principle of Synthesis, humanity will find the way to real evolution.
And woman is the one who should know and proclaim this leading Principle because from the very beginning she was chosen to link the two worlds, visible and invisible. Woman possesses the power of the sacred life energy. The coming epoch brings knowledge about this great omnipresent energy, which is manifested in all immortal creations of human genius.- Helena Roerich Letters I, (1 March 1929)
- Western woman is awake and realizes her powers. Her cultural contributions are already evident. However, the majority of Western women—as with all beginners — start with imitation; whereas, it is in original self-expression that real beauty and harmony are found. Would we like to see man losing the beauty of manhood? The same is true about a man who has a sense of beauty. He certainly does not wish to see a woman imitating his habits and competing with his vices. Imitation always starts with the easiest. But we hope that this first step will soon be outlived and that woman will deepen her knowledge of Mother Nature and will find true, original ways of self-expression.
- Helena Roerich Letters I, (1 March 1929)
- I shall finish my address to woman with a page from The Teaching of Life: “When nations started disunity, the result was self-destruction. And only a return to balance can stop this self-destruction. Humanity does not apply the principles of creativeness in right proportion and thus violates the foundations of Being. When by the law of the Cosmic Magnet the lower forms are subordinated to the higher, this concerns only the energies which should be transmuted. But when the Origins are called to create and give life, it is impossible to remove one of the Origins without self-destruction. Therefore, humanity will start its real evolution only when both Origins are affirmed in life. All principles which do not include the understanding of the dual Origin can only increase the lack of balance. Humanity must understand the law of the Cosmic Magnet. Much can be done for evolution by the realization of the grandeur of the dual Origin which is the basis of Life.”
- Helena Roerich Letters I, (1 March 1929)
- Could the terrors and crimes of today be possible if both Origins had been balanced? In the hands of woman lies the salvation of humanity and of our planet. Woman must realize her significance, the great mission of the Mother of the World; she should be prepared to take responsibility for the destiny of humanity. Mother, the life-giver, has every right to direct the destiny of her children. The voice of woman, the mother, should be heard amongst the leaders of humanity. The mother suggests the first conscious thoughts to her child. She gives direction and quality to all his aspirations and abilities. But the mother who possesses no thought of culture can suggest only the lower expressions of human nature.
But in her striving toward education, woman must remember that all educational systems are only the means for the development of a higher knowledge and culture. The true culture of thought is developed by the culture of spirit and heart. Only such a combination gives that great synthesis without which it is impossible to realize the real grandeur, diversity, and complexity of human life in its cosmic evolution. Therefore, while striving to knowledge, may woman remember the Source of Light and the Leaders of Spirit—those great Minds who, verily, created the consciousness of humanity. In approaching this Source, this leading Principle of Synthesis, humanity will find the way to real evolution.- Helena Roerich Letters I, (1 March 1929)
- It is also said: "As the Teacher creates through his disciples, even so woman creates through the masculine principle. Therefore woman uplifts man." Hence, woman must raise herself to such a degree, spiritually, morally and intellectually, that it will enable her to carry man with her. Remember the painting by N. K., "She who Leads." Thus woman must occupy the place destined for her. She must become not only an equal cooperator in the management of the whole life, but also an inspirer. The greatest task is to spiritualize and to restore the health of humanity by filling it with aspiration toward great deeds and beauty. But woman must first of all change herself! Therefore, the call to woman must be primarily the call to self-perfection, for the realization of her dignity and her great destiny and to lay the foundation... for the awakening of the impulse toward creativeness and beauty. It is said: "The Equilibrium of the world cannot be established without true understanding of the First Causes. . . . Therefore, let us be affirmed in consciousness upon the power of Equilibrium, as the stimulus of Existence, of the First Causes, and of Beauty. Hence it is so indispensable to affirm in the spirit the Feminine Principle." (Fiery World III)
- Helena Roerich Letters I,, (17 August 1934)
- The great decisive Battle between the Forces of Light and darkness. It was predicted in all the ancient scriptures, and the name, "Armageddon" as well as the description of it, can be found in the Apocalypse....It is interesting to note that these calculations are also found in the pyramid of Cheops. Thus, today we find ourselves in the midst of this Battle, which will increase. This Battle is still more fearful in the Subtle World, but eventually its reflections will be intensified on the earthly plane... As it is said, "The hostile elements of the race refuse to submit to destiny. The departing race seeks to destroy the chosen successors, but we must save them. Destiny may be eased and the Battle ended sooner."...
Yes, the New Epoch requires spiritual cognition. The New Epoch must manifest due respect to the Mother of the World, to the Feminine Element. “The bird of the spirit of Humanity cannot fly with only one wing” —these are words of Vivekananda, who meant to affirm the great significance of the Feminine Principle. Man does not willingly give full rights to woman. However, this opposition but intensifies the forces; and woman, fighting for her cosmic rights, will acquire the knowledge of her power. (LHR I, p 325) (10 September 1934)
- There exists a most ancient saying, "Where women are revered and safeguarded, prosperity reigns and the gods rejoice."
- Helena Roerich Letters of Helena Roerich II (5 April 1938)
- The New Epoch... will bring the renaissance of woman. The Epoch of Maitreya is the Epoch of the Mother of the World. It is remarkable to observe the rapid rise of the women of India. There one can see women occupying the posts of ministers and other responsible positions. Many women of India are excellent speakers. The Indians readily elect women, because they have faith in the common sense of their wives. But, of course, there are also opponents of the liberation of woman. In certain dominions in India where women are at the head of the government one sees many innovations, the temples are open for the lower castes, universities are founded and also museums, laboratories, hospitals are patterned after European lines.
- Helena Roerich Letters of Helena Roerich II (5 April 1938)
- Why think that women have in general less psychic energy than men? This is a great error. In the determination of the quantity of psychic energy, sex is of no importance. Indeed, there may be greater or lesser bearers of psychic energy, but its possession is given equally to both Origins. The Holy spirit, the Hindu Shakti, or energy, is feminine in origin. Woman is not deprived by nature of anything, the more so in spiritual abilities.
- Helena Roerich Letters of Helena Roerich II (28 April 1938)
- Woman, in all countries, and in all classes of society was for countless ages in almost full subjugation and under the guardianship of a family. In the last century she was still deprived of the right not only to a higher education but even her schooling was adapted to a state of feeble-mindedness, as it were. During centuries, with very rare exceptions, woman's merits were not only passed over in silence but it was publicly censured if these merits exceeded the usual boundaries of the narrow field of household activities. Yet the woman gave, and all was accepted from her, though mention of her name was carefully avoided. A great deal of injustice was done, and still is, in relation to woman. Therefore, at the coming of the New Epoch, woman herself must realize that she is in no way below man, that she is not definitely ill-favored by nature. It is especially painful to hear women themselves affirm their lower state, so to speak, even in cosmic creativity and in the cosmic plan. What a destructive fallacy! Let us realize with all our being the great destiny of woman, the Mother, giving life, and directing and inspiring humanity on the path of evolution.
- Helena Roerich Letters of Helena Roerich II (28 April 1938)
- I remember when OB tampons came out and you could hold them in your hand, and I'd walk down the hall holding my little OB tampon and I thought, "If I open my hand and show this to anybody, the whole building is going to explode."
- Judy Roitman, mathematician, quoted by Claudia Henrion in Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference, 1997.
- Toute fille lettrée restera fille toute sa vie, quand il n'y aura que des hommes sensés sur la terre.
- Every blue-stocking will remain a spinster as long as there are sensible men on the earth.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile: Or, On Education (1762), I. 5.
- Une femme bel-esprit est le fléau de son mari, de ses enfants, de ses amis, de ses valets, de tout le monde.
- A blue-stocking is the scourge of her husband, children, friends, servants, and every one.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile: Or, On Education (1762), I. 5.
- And one false step entirely damns her fame.
In vain with tears the loss she may deplore,
In vain look back on what she was before;
She sets like stars that fall, to rise no more.- Nicholas Rowe, Jane Shore (1714), Act I.
- We're living through the most misogynistic period I've experienced. Back in the 80s, I imagined that my future daughters, should I have any, would have it far better than I ever did, but between the backlash against feminism and a porn-saturated online culture, I believe things have got significantly worse for girls. Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now. From the leader of the free world's long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of grabbing them by the pussy, to the incel ("involuntarily celibate") movement that rages against women who won't give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.
- J. K. Rowling, "J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues", J.K. Rowling website (10 June 2020)
- Not only am I scared of big, strong men, I'm scared of mean little women. It's just little skinny men and nice big women that I get along with.
- Rudy Rucker in The Sex Sphere, p. 40.
- This brought back the sick, ashamed feeling I'd woken up with. I was no better than some geek with a foam-rubber woman's torso like they advertise in Hustler. What a pathetic, twisted version of womanhood: all the "inessential" parts lopped off, nothing left behind but tits and ass and holes. Lifelike washable plastic skin. Greek and French features. But yet, in a way, wasn't the sex sphere always what I'd wanted in a woman? An ugly truth there. "Shut up and spread!" How many times had I told Sybil that, if not in so many words?
- Rudy Rucker in The Sex Sphere, p. 69
- And behind every man who's a failure there's a woman, too!
- John Ruge, cartoon caption, Playboy (March 1967), p. 138.
S
edit- Hence, it will be found that the fundamental fault of the female character is that is has no sense of justice. This is mainly due to the fact, already mentioned, that women are defective in the powers of reasoning and deliberation; but it is also traceable to the position which Nature has assigned to them as the weaker sex. They are dependent, not upon strength, but upon craft; and hence their instinctive capacity for cunning, and their ineradicable tendency to say what is not true. For as lions are provided with claws and teeth, and elephants and boards with tusks, bulls with horns, and cuttle fish with its clouds of inky fluid, so Nature has equipped woman, for her defense and protection, with the arts of dissimulation.
- Arthur Schopenhauer, Über die Weiber (Of Women), 1851 essay.
- Woman's faith, and woman's trust,
Write the characters in dust.- Walter Scott, The Betrothed (1825), Chapter XX.
- Widowed wife and wedded maid.
- Walter Scott, The Betrothed (1825), last chapter.
- O Woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!- Walter Scott, Marmion (1808), Canto VI, Stanza 30.
- Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act II, scene 2, line 240.
- If ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it.- William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act II, scene 7, line 37.
- Run, run, Orlando: carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.- William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act III, scene 2, line 9.
- I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched with so many giddy offences as He hath generally taxed their whole sex withal.
- William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act III, scene 2, line 366.
- O most delicate fiend!
Who is't can read a woman?- William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act V, scene 5, line 47.
- Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears;—why she, even she,
* * * married with my uncle.- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act I, scene 2, line 146.
- And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?
As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle.- William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act I, scene 2, line 45.
- 'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;
But, God he knows, thy share thereof is small:
'Tis virtue that doth make them most admired;
The contrary doth make thee wondered at:
'Tis government that makes them seem divine.- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III (c. 1591), Act I, scene 4, line 128.
- Her sighs will make a battery in his breast;
Her tears will pierce into a marble heart;
The tiger will be mild whiles she doth mourn;
And Nero will be tainted with remorse,
To hear and see her plaints.- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III (c. 1591), Act III, scene 1, line 37.
- Two women plac'd together makes cold weather.
- William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act I, scene 4, line 22.
- I grant I am a woman, but withal,
A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife:
I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman well-reputed; Cato's daughter.- William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act II, scene 1, line 292.
- Ah me, how weak a thing
The heart of woman is!- William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act II, scene 4, line 39.
- She in beauty, education, blood,
Holds hand with any princess of the world.- William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act II, scene 1, line 493.
- There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.
- William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act III, scene 2, line 35.
- A child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman.
- William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act I, scene 1, line 266.
- Fair ladies mask'd are roses in their bud:
Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown,
Are angels veiling clouds, or roses blown.- William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act V, scene 2, line 295.
- Would it not grieve a woman to be overmaster'd with a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a cloud of wayward marl?
- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act II, scene 1, line 63.
- She speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star.
- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act II, scene 1, line 255.
- One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am well: another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.
- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act II, scene 3, line 27.
- A maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
And in the essential vesture of creation
Does tire the ingener.- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 1, line 61.
- You are pictures out of doors,
Bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens,
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended,
Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds.- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 1, line 110.
- Have you not heard it said full oft,
A woman's nay doth stand for nought?- William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim (c. 1599–1602), line 339.
- Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
* * * * * *
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
* * * * * *
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act I, scene 2, line 200.
- Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute?
Why, no; for she hath broke the lute to me.- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act II, scene 1, line 148.
- Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale;
Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash'd with dew;
Say she be mute and will not speak a word;
Then I'll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act II, scene 1, line 171.
- A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty.- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act V, scene 2, line 142.
- Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act V, scene 2, line 165.
- Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed;
For what I will, I will, and there an end.- William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590s), Act I, scene 3, line 64.
- To be slow in words is a woman's only virtue.
- William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590s), Act III, scene 1, line 338.
- If, one by one, you wedded all the world,
Or from the all that are took something good,
To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd
Would be unparallel'd.- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act V, scene 1, line 13.
- Women will love her that she is a woman
More worth than any man; men, that she is
The rarest of all women.- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act V, scene 1, line 110.
- Whether you become a daughter, sister, lover, partner, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother, or anything else with complete honesty, the satisfaction you'll find in becoming yourself cannot be found in becoming any of these relative beings.
- Sanu Sharma quoted by Goodreads
- I realized that while women may seem like regular individuals, mothers are nothing short of divine embodiment. They transcend the ordinary, not only navigating life's challenges but also contending with the forces of nature in relentless devotion to their children.
- Sanu Sharma, Pharak, pp. 138
- Woman's dearest delight is to wound Man's self-conceit, though Man's dearest delight is to gratify hers.
- Bernard Shaw, Unsocial Socialist (1883, published 1887), Chapter V.
- You sometimes have to answer a woman according to her womanishness, just as you have to answer a fool according to his folly.
- Bernard Shaw, Unsocial Socialist (1883, published 1887), Chapter XVIII.
- Women, for the sake of their children and parents, submit to slaveries and prostitutions that no unattached woman would endure.
- Bernard Shaw, preface to Androcles and the Lion (1916).
- One moral's plain, * * * without more fuss;
Man's social happiness all rests on us:
Through all the drama—whether damn'd! or not—
Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.- Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals (1775), Epilogue.
- A 2007 University of Chicago study found that cities with longer commutes have fewer married women in the workplace, and according to a 2009 study from the University of Sheffield, women find commuting more psychologically taxing than men do, in part because they spend their commutes thinking about all of the things they need to do when they get home to make the household run smoothly. Men, the study found, spend their commutes relaxing or listening to music.
- Hana Schank and Wlizaneth Wallace, “Beyond Maternity Leave”, The Atlantic, (Dec 19, 2016).
- Across all the countries examined, females were underrepresented in the film workforce compared to their actual percentages globally. Discrepancy scores were calculated to determine the degree to which on-screen depictions of occupations differ from real-world values (see Table 6). The scores were grouped into three categories based on the size of the discrepancy: small (5-9.9), moderate (10-19.9), and large (20+). India was the only country in which female film jobs revealed a small difference from the real world. Five countries (Japan, Brazil, U.K., China, Korea) showed moderate differences between movie and actual workforce percentages and five countries (France, Russia, U.S., Australia, Germany) showed large differences. Once again, women are underrepresented on screen. This time they comprise less than a quarter of the workforce in international films, which is well below their share in the real world of work. Given that movies can set an agenda for the next generation entering the workforce, the lack of females in the labor market is a concern. Perhaps even more troubling is the types of occupations women are shown possessing, the topic of the next section.
- Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, Katherine Pieper, "An Investigation of Female Characyers in Popular Films Across 11 Countries", Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, p.9
- If we are to use women for the same things as the men, we must also teach them the same things.
- As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
- Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
- What wilt not woman, gentle woman, dare
When strong affection stirs her spirit up?- Robert Southey, Madoc in Wales (1805), Part II, II.
- The state will only ever be a half of itself.
- A Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
compliments of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Genesis Chap I says Man & Woman were a simultaneous creation
Chap II says Woman was an afterthought
Which is true?
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman's Bible volume II, (1898), dedication page; in Levinson, Bernard M (2004). Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-567-08098-1.
- The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her... He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective to the franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she has no voice...
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise , thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, her has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.- Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Convention (July 19-20, 1848).
- Resolved, That is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton First Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York, [July, 19-20, 1848]. Resolution IX.
- The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton Speech before the New York Legislature (1860-02-18).
- Women's degradation is in man's idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man. Come what will, my whole soul rejoices in the truth that I have uttered.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton Letter to Susan B. Anthony (1860-06-14).
- Our "pathway" is straight to the ballot box, with no variableness nor shadow of turning...We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of citizens.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1868-01-13).
- Women have crucified the Mary Wollstonecrafts, the Fanny Wrights, and the George Sands of all ages. Men mock us with the fact and say we are ever cruel to each other... If this present woman must be crucified, let men drive the spikes.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Letter to Lucretia Mott (1872-04-01).
- We are, as a sex, infinitely superior to men, and if we were free and developed, healthy in body and mind, as we should be under natural conditions, our motherhood would be our glory. That function gives women such wisdom and power as no male can possess.
- Diary of 27 December 1890. Published in Elizabeth Cady Stanton as revealed in her letters, diary and reminiscences By Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot Stanton Blatch. Harper & brothers, 1922. p 270. GoogleBooks URL accessed 18 September 2009.
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton in First Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York, [July, 19-20, 1848]. Declaration of Sentiments.
- To deny political equality is to rob the ostracised of all self-respect; of credit in the market place; of recompense in the world of work; of a voice among those who make and administer the law; a choice in the jury before whom they are tried, and in the judge who decides their punishment.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton address to the Committee of the Judiciary of the United States Congress, (18 January 1892)
- The darkest page in history is the persecutions of woman.
- Men think that self-sacrifice is the most charming of all the cardinal virtues for women, and in order to keep it in healthy working order, they make opportunities for its illustration as often as possible. I would fain teach women that self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.
- The only points in which I differ from all ecclesiastical teaching is that I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God, I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians what they say he did about woman, for all the religions on the face of the earth degrade her, and so long as woman accepts the position that they assign her, her emancipation is impossible.
- Accepting the view that man was prior in the creation, some Scriptural writers say that as the woman was of the man, therefore, her position should be one of subjection. Grant it, then as the historical fact is reversed in our day, and the man is now of the woman, shall his place be one of subjection?
- In the criminal code we find no feminine pronouns, as "He," "His," "Him," we are arrested, tried and hung, but singularly enough, we are denied the highest privileges of citizens, because the pronouns "She," "Hers" and "Her," are not found in the constitutions. It is a pertinent question, if women can pay the penalties of their crimes as "He," why may they not enjoy the privileges of citizens as "He"?
- My spirituality has always been linked to my feminism. Feminism is about challenging unequal power structures.
- Starhawk, as quoted in Womanspirit Rising : A Feminist Reader in Religion (1979) by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow
- Once men realize that they are also deprived — not as much as women, just as whites are not as deprived as blacks — but there is a full circle of human qualities we all have a right to. And they're confined to the "masculine" ones, which are seventy percent of all of them, and we're confined to the "feminine" ones, which are thirty percent. We're missing more, but they're still missing a lot. If a man fights to be his whole self, to be creative, to express emotions men are not supposed to express, do jobs men are not supposed to do, take care of his own children — all of these things are part of the feminist movement.
- Most patients who visit the doctor are female. Most patients who report being in pain are female. "The epidemiology is clear, women are up to 70 percent of all pain patients" says Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist at McGill University and author of a new commentary in Nature arguing for greater diversity in lab animals.
A growing body of evidence—including a 2012 analysis of 11,000 patient records—indicates that women are more sensitive to pain. In fact, they may be hardwired to feel pain differently. Last year, Magil and a plethora of co-authors published a study showing that female lab mice actually used different cells to transmit pain signals through their spinal cord. And while no one has confirmed that this is also the case in human females (paging the ethics committee...), Magil says evidence in animals is both compelling and growing stronger.
"This is not news for those of us who have worked in this field for a long time," says William Schmidt, president of NorthStar Consulting, a pain research company. "It’s still a struggle to get some very traditional investigators to understand the importance of gender in preclinical and clinical pain research." In 2015, just 4 percent of all the rodent-based papers published in the journal Pain used both males and females, says Mogil. That's roughly the same as it has been for a decade
Mogil says this inertia comes partly from scientists who believe female rodents aren't reliable model organisms. And true, there is research that indicates their hormonal fluctuations (female rodents have oestrous cycle that is roughly analogous to the human menstrual cycle) do affect the data. "The problem is if you look at those studies, their results are going in different directions," says Mogil. In some studies rats are more sensitive, in others less. Overall, it averages out, he says.- Nick Stockton, “Science has a Huge Diversity Problem...in Lab Mice”, WIRED, (07.13.16).
T
edit- I read somewhere that their periods attract bears. The bears can smell the menstruation.
- Brick Tamland, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004.
- One way to hold a woman is not to hold her.
- Gay Talese, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold (April 1966).
- Woman is the lesser man.
- Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall (1835, published 1842), Stanza 76.
- With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans,
And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.- Alfred Tennyson, The Princess (1847), Prologue, line 141.
- A rosebud set with little wilful thorns,
And sweet as English air could make her, she.- Alfred Tennyson, The Princess (1847), Prologue, line 153.
- The woman is so hard
Upon the woman.- Alfred Tennyson, The Princess (1847), VI.
- For woman is not undeveloped man
But diverse; could we make her as the man
Sweet love were slain; his dearest bond is this
Not like to like but like in difference.- Alfred Tennyson, The Princess (1847), VII.
- Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls.
- Alfred Tennyson, Maud; A Monodrama (1855), Part I, XXII, Stanza 9.
- For men at most differ as Heaven and Earth,
But women, worst and best, as Heaven and Hell.- Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King (published 1859-1885), Merlin and Vivian.
- She with all the charm of woman,
She with all the breadth of man.- Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), line 48.
- I do not allow a woman to teach or to usurp authority over the man.
- 1 Timothy 2 v 12
- The number of unmarried women who were sexually active with men other than their intended spouse was increasing from 1900 but the only substantial group of such women continued to be those who worked as prostitutes. Their numbers diminished as legislation and intensification of policing introduced pimps into the equation and made prostitution a less acceptable lifestyle for women before the Second World War. Occasional comments reveal the existence of women and men who were otherwise conventional but who had sexual experience and pleasure greater than that suggested as usual by most sources.
- “The long sexual revolution: English women, sex and contraception 1800-1975” (2004) Sexuality and Sex Manuals, pp.178-179
- Apart from her personal pain-body, every woman has her share in what could be described as the collective female pain-body - unless she is fully conscious. This consists of accumulated pain suffered by women partly through male subjugation of the female, through slavery, exploitation, rape, childbirth, child loss, and so on, over thousands of years. The emotional or physical pain that for many women precedes and coincides with the menstrual flow is the pain-body in its collective aspect that awakens from its dormancy at that time, although it can be triggered at other times too. It restricts the free flow of life energy through the body, of which menstruation is a physical expression... Often a woman is "taken over" by the pain-body at that time. It has an extremely powerful energetic charge that can easily pull you into unconscious identification with it. You are then actively possessed by an energy field that occupies your inner space and pretends to be you - but, of course, is not you at all. It speaks through you, acts through you, thinks through you. It will create negative situations in your life so that it can feed on the energy. It wants more pain, in whatever form... It is pure pain, past pain - and it is not you...
- Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997) p.106
- The number of women who are now approaching the fully conscious state already exceeds that of men and will be growing even faster in the years to come. Men may catch up with them in the end, but for some considerable time there will be a gap between the consciousness of men and that of women. Women are regaining the function that is their birthright and, therefore, comes to them more naturally than it does to men: to be a bridge between the manifested world and the Unmanifested, between physicality and spirit. Your main task as a woman now is to transmute the pain-body so that it no longer comes between you and your true self, the essence of who you are. Of course, you also have to deal with the other obstacle to enlightenment, which is the thinking mind, but the intense presence you generate when dealing with the pain-body will also free you from identification with the mind.
- Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997) p.106
- The suppression of the feminine principle especially over the past two thousand years has enabled the ego to gain absolute supremacy in the collective human psyche. Although women have egos, of course, the ego can take root and grow more easily in the male form than in the female. This is because women are less mind identified than men. They are more in touch with the inner body and the intelligence of the organism where the intuitive faculties originate. The female form is less rigidly encapsulated than the male, has greater openness and sensitivity toward other lifeforms, and is more attuned to the natural world.
- If the balance between male and female energies had not been destroyed on our planet, the ego's growth would have been greatly curtailed. We would not have declared war on nature, and we would not be so completely alienated from our Being... The suppression of the feminine principle especially over the past two thousand years has enabled the ego to gain absolute supremacy in the collective human psyche. Although women have egos, of course, the ego can take root and grow more easily in the male form than in the female. This is because women are less mind identified than men. They are more in touch with the inner body and the intelligence of the organism where the intuitive faculties originate. The female form is less rigidly encapsulated than the male, has greater openness and sensitivity toward other lifeforms, and is more attuned to the natural world.
- Nobody knows the exact figure because records were not kept, but it sees certain that during a three hundred year period between three and five million women were tortured and killed by the Holy Inquisition, an institution founded by the Roman Catholic Church to suppress heresy. This sure ranks together with the Holocaust as one of the darkest chapters in human history. It was enough for a woman to show a love for animals, walk alone in the fields or woods, or gather medicinal plants to be branded a witch, then tortured and burned at the stake. The sacred feminine was declared demonic, and an entire dimension largely disappeared form human experience. Other cultures and religions, such as Judaism, [[Islam], and even Buddhism, also suppressed the female dimension, although in a less violent way. Women's status was reduced to being child bearers and men's property. Males who denied the feminine... were now running the world, a world that was totally out of balance. The rest is history or rather a case history of insanity.
- Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005)
- Who was responsible for this fear of the feminine that could only be described as acute collective paranoia? We could say: Of course, men were responsible. But then why in many ancient pre-Christian civilizations such as the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Celtic were women respected and the feminine principle not feared but revered? What is it that suddenly made men feel threatened by the female? The evolving ego in them. It knew it could gain full control of our planet only through the male form, and to do so, it had to render the female powerless.
- Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005)
- We now have a situation in which the suppression of the feminine has become internalized, even in most women. The sacred feminine, because it is suppressed, is felt by many women as emotional pain. In fact, it has become part of their painbody, together with the accumulated pain suffered by women over millennia through childbirth, rape, slavery, torture and violent death.
- Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005)
- But things are changing rapidly now. With many people becoming more conscious, the ego is losing its hold on the human mind. Because the ego was never as deeply rooted in woman, it is losing its hold on women more quickly than on men.
- You have to treat 'em like s___.
- Donald Trump, speaking to Philip Johnson in September 1992; as quoted in "Fighting Back: Trump Scrambles Off the Canvas" by Julie Baumgold, New York (November 9, 1992), p. 43
- I will be phenomenal to the women. I mean, I want to help women.
- Donald Trump. Face the Nation, 9/8/15
- I love beautiful women, and beautiful women love me. It has to be both ways.
- Donald Trump, interview with Norwegian talk show host Fredrik Skavlan in (November 2003).[specific citation needed]
“Exercise for the older woman: choosing the right prescription.” (1997)
editJ E Taunton, A D Martin, E C Rhodes, L A Wolski, M Donelly, and J Elliot; “Exercise for the older woman: choosing the right prescription.”, Br J Sports Med. 1997 Mar; 31(1): 5-10
- Many elderly women in industrially developed countries are at, or near to, functionally important strength related thresholds and so have either lost, or are in danger of losing, the ability to perform some important everyday tasks. The increased rate of healthcare expenditure due to loss of physical function is a major economic issue. Even though women make up most of the senior population, little current research on the impact of physical activity on strength and function in elderly people has included women. Elderly women typically have more barriers to participation in physical activity than do other groups and because of decreased participation, may possibly experience higher disability rates.
- p.5
- Women outlive men by seven or eight years which means that after the age of 80, 88% of women live on their own and make up most of our elderly population. A recent study by Van Den Hambergh et al' found that elderly widowed or unmarried women tend to be less active than married women of the same age and that most elderly women in our society are not physically active enough to maintain physical independence. Disability is also disproportionately more common in women. Therefore, women should be the initial target for intervention to help maintain the ability to perform everyday tasks and activities.' It is essential that exercise scientists and other healthcare professionals understand the interplay between decreased physical activity and increased age, particularly in women.
Unfortunately, much of the current data on the impact of exercise on strength and function in elderly people include a minimal number of female subjects in the upper age ranges."' This group typically exhibits a lack of familiarity with exercise and low functional capacity, and may possibly experience an acceleration of the age related declines in functional capacity. It is imperative that the barriers to exercise that inhibit elderly women from participating in exercise be identified and strategies for promoting physical activity in these same women be developed. Current research in this area has suggested that maintenance of strength and of bone mineral density can help to maintain physical function.- pp.5-6
- Females are weaker than males in overall body strength at all ages. A recent survey in the United States has shown that after the age of 74, 66% of women cannot lift objects weighing more than 4.5 kg.'0 Young found that the typical healthy 80 year old woman is at, or very near, the threshold value of quadriceps strength required to rise from a chair. Thus any reduction in strength may lead to loss of physical independence in activities of daily living and is also a risk factor for both falls and hip fractures.
Most studies concerning the adaptation of skeletal muscle to strength training in elderly people have been conducted on men. From the limited research that has been done on elderly women, there seems to be a positive relation between activity level and strength.- p.6
- Alekel et al. found that the combined contribution of total body weight and lifetime physical activity to bone mineral density is much greater in postmenopausal women than premenopausal women, particularly for the proximal femur, indicating that activity is particularly important for postmenopausal women.
- pp.8-9
- Many healthy elderly women are at, or near to, functionally important strength related thresholds and so have either lost or are in danger of losing the ability to perform some important everyday tasks. There is much research still to be done on the influence of exercise on strength, function, bone mineral density, and psychological health in elderly women. Current research in the field has shown that there are many advantages to strength training with elderly women. The most important of these are the maintenance of bone mineral density (and the consequent reduction of hip fractures) and functional independence.
- p.9
- Barriers to physical activity are still a problem for many elderly women. They need to be identified and strategies to overcome them must be put into place. Continuing physical activity is so important to older women, not only because they make up a significant portion of the elderly population, but because the decline in physical activity and the subsequent increase in incidence of chronic illnesses are much more apparent in this population.
- p.9
U
edit- There's real fear of aging in this country, which I don’t share. It seems to be an American nightmare, especially for women. There’s nothing worse than a woman trying to look like she did when she was 32 when she is 58. It’s like, “Have some dignity, guys—just go with it!”
- Quoted in 2009 in The Many States of Tracey Ullman
- Geologist is the only person who can talk to a woman and use the words 'dike', 'thrust','bed', 'orogeny', 'cleavage', and 'subduction' in the same sentence without facing a civil suit
- Unknown, in “Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations”, p. 863.
V
edit- Shariputra said, "Why don't you change out of this female body?" (Shariputra assumes that any woman would naturally want to change into a man if she had the power to do so.)
The goddess replied, "For the past twelve years I have been trying to take on female form, but in the end with no success. What is there to change? If a sorcerer were to conjure up a phantom woman and then someone asked her why she didn't change out of her female body, would that be any kind of reasonable question?"
"No," said Shariputra. "Phantoms have no fixed form, so what would there be to change?"
The goddess said, "All things are just the same-they have no fixed form. So why ask why I don't change out of my female form?"
At that time the goddess employed her supernatural powers to change Shariputra into a goddess like herself, while she took on Shariputra's form. Then she asked, "Why don't you change out of this female body?"
Shariputra, now in the form of a goddess, replied, "I don't know why I have suddenly changed and taken on a female body! " The goddess said, "Shariputra, if you can change out of this female body, then all women can change likewise. Shariputra, who is not a woman, appears in a woman's body. And the same is true of all women-though they appear in women's bodies, they are not women. Therefore the Buddha teaches that all phenomena are neither male nor female."
Then the goddess withdrew her supernatural powers, and Shariputra returned to his original form. The goddess said to Shariputra, "Where now is the form and shape of your female body?"
Shariputra said, "The form and shape of my female body does not exist, yet does not not exist."
The goddess said, "All things are just like that-they do not exist, yet do not not exist. And that they do not exist, yet do not not exist, is exactly what the Buddha teaches."- Vimalakirti Sutra, Chapter 7, translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN: 0231106572.
- Varium et mutabile semper,
Femina.
- Furens quid fœmina possit.
- Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
- Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique portatif ("A Philosophical Dictionary") (1764), Women.
W
edit- Religious conservative women are happier in their marriages than non-religious women.
- Matt Walsh, WALSH: NY Times Article Says Religious Women Are Happier In Marriage. That's No Surprise. Here's Why. May 21st 2019, The Daily Wire
- As a result of the danger women encountered while in support positions during Desert Storm, President Bush (Sr.) called for the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces (PCAWAF) in order to determine whether women should be placed in more combat positions. According to the study, women did not meet the physical requirements of ground combat positions, and their presence could also be detrimental to unit cohesion for a number of reasons. The commission also determined that if women were allowed into combat positions, there would no longer be any legal standing to prevent women from being included in the next draft. With a 10 against and 2 abstentions, the commission voted against allowing women to serve in ground positions.
The largest portion of the PCAWAF was dedicated to testimony and tests that showed that women, as a whole, did not meet the requirements for various ground combat positions. These men and women who were given the same training and requirements to meet. Within these studies, the women's physical performances were about 70% that of the men's performance. In response to the evidence that some women did reach the physical standard, the PCAWAF stated, "There is little doubt that some women could meet the physical standards for ground combat, but the evidence shows that few women possess the necessary physical requirements." Those for lifting the ban on combat exclusion say that with extra training more women would be able to meet the same physical requirements. In a study by the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, 78% of the participating women were able to lift 150 pounds off the ground to a height of fifty-two inches and could jog with 75 pound packs after six months of physical training. The study showed that with extra training, a large portion of women entering the military could be brought up to the same physical standards as men.- Sylvia Wan, “Women's Role in Combat: Is Ground Combat the Next Front?”, Hohonu, University of Hawaii, vol.4, p.117.
- The more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop. For the record, feminism by definition is: “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”
I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not. I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive. Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?
- I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality. These rights I consider to be human rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day.
- What cannot a neat knave with a smooth tale
Make a woman believe?- John Webster, Duchess of Malfi (1623), I, II.
- A woman for duty, A boy for pleasure, But a melon for ecstasy.
- John Wells, who attributed it to an Arabic or Turkish proverb
- Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
- Charlotte Whitton In Canada Month (June, 1963), and Arlington Heights Herald (August 26, 1965), p. 49
- Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890).
- Women treat us just as humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them.
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890).
- Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890).
- There are only two kinds of women, the plain and the coloured.
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Chapter III. Same in Woman of No Importance, Act III.
- One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.
- Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance (1893), act I, in The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, vol. 7 (1923), p. 197. Lord Illingworth is speaking.
- “Whatever a woman is,” Wendre said, “she’s that second and a woman first.”
- Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn, Star Bridge (1955), chapter 21
- Our government should not be run like a business; it should be run like a family... Our system was designed before women had a voice in the public realm, and raising children was deemed to just be "women's work." But we certainly have a voice now, and we need to raise it on behalf of every mother's child... In any advanced mammalian species that survives and thrives, a common characteristic is the fierce behavior of the adult female of the species when she senses a threat to her cubs. Ours are threatened now, and we need to get fierce.
- Marianne Williamson, If We Want a Prosperous America Tomorrow, Take Care of Our Children Today, Newsweek (23 July 2020)
- Too many people have taken the incels’ explanation of their own virulent misogyny at face value, and repeated the comfortable line that these men stand apart from all others. Along with influential columnists, even economists have endorsed the idea of “sexual marketplace”, wherein women are figured as a commodity, and some men have inadequate buying power to procure. (Most have been too polite to mention many incels’ accompanying belief that the world, and women, are so corrupted that sex is beneath them.)
- Jason Wilson, "What do incels, fascists and terrorists have in common? Violent misogyny", The Guardian, (4, May 2018)
- Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
- Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Chapter 3.
- A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.- William Wordsworth, She was a Phantom of Delight (1804).
- And now I see with eye serene,
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller betwixt life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill.- William Wordsworth, She was a Phantom of Delight (1804).
- A perfect Woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command.- William Wordsworth, She was a Phantom of Delight (1804).
- She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament.- William Wordsworth, She was a Phantom of Delight (1804).
- Shalt show us how divine a thing
A Woman may be made.- William Wordsworth, To a Young Lady, Dear Child of Nature (1805).
- Everything about the games industry sends the signal: 'this is a space for men'. When players are repeatedly shown that women are sex symbols and damsels in distress, is it any surprise that players go on to treat women poorly in real life?
- Brianna Wu as qtd in James Batchelor, "Games developers must fight internet abuse together". Develop. (November 10, 2014). Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
X
edit- How sad it is to be a woman!
Nothing on earth is held so cheap.
Boys stand leaning at the door
Like Gods fallen out of Heaven.
Their hearts brave the Four Oceans,
The wind and dust of a thousand miles.
No one is glad when a girl is born:
By her the family sets no store.
When she grows up, she hides in her room
Afraid to look at a man in the face.- Fu Xuan, poem "Woman", transl. by Arthur Waley in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919).
Y
edit- And beautiful as sweet!
And young as beautiful! and soft as young!
And gay as soft! and innocent as gay.- Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night III, line 81.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
edit- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 886-97.
- Oh the gladness of their gladness when they're glad,
And the sadness of their sadness when they're sad;
But the gladness of their gladness, and the sadness of their sadness,
Are as nothing to their badness when they're bad.- Anonymous
- Oh, the shrewdness of their shrewdness when they are shrewd,
And the rudeness of their rudeness when they're rude;
But the shrewdness of their shrewdness and the rudeness of their rudeness,
Are as nothing to their goodness when they're good.- Anonymous; answer to preceding.
- On one she smiled, and he was blest;
She smiles elsewhere—we make a din!
But 'twas not love which heaved her breast,
Fair child!—it was the bliss within.- Matthew Arnold, Euphrosyne.
- Woman's love is writ in water,
Woman's faith is traced in sand.- William E. Aytoun, Lays of Scottish Cavaliers, Prince Edward at Versailles.
- Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied Him with unholy tongue;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave,
Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave.- Eaton S. Barrett, Woman, Part I, line 141. "Not she with trait'rous kiss her Master stung, / Not she denied Him with unfaithful tongue; / She, when apostles fled, could danger brave, / Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave." Version in ed. of 1810.
- "And now, Madam," I addressed her, "we shall try who shall get the breeches."
- William Beloe, Miscellanies (1795). Translation of a Latin story by Antonius Musa Brassavolus. (1540).
- Phidias made the statue of Venus at Elis with one foot upon the shell of a tortoise, to signify two great duties of a virtuous woman, which are to keep home and be silent.
- W. De Britaine, Human Prudence (Ed. 1726), p. 134. Referred to by Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Section III. Mem. 4. Subs. 2.
- A worthless woman! mere cold clay
As all false things are! but so fair,
She takes the breath of men away
Who gaze upon her unaware:
I would not play her larcenous tricks
To have her looks!- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Bianca among the Nightingales, Stanza 12.
- Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn,
Gay as the gilded summer sky,
Sweet as the dewy milk-white thorn,
Dear as the raptured thrill of joy.- Robert Burns, Address to Edinburgh.
- Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O:
Her 'prentice hand she tried on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.- Robert Burns, Green Grow the Rashes.
- Their tricks and craft hae put me daft,
They've ta'en me in, and a' that,
But clear your decks, and—Here's the sex!
I like the jads for a' that.- Robert Burns, Jolly Beggars.
- The souls of women are so small,
That some believe they've none at all;
Or if they have, like cripples, still
They've but one faculty, the will.- Samuel Butler, Miscellaneous Thoughts.
- Ther seyde oones a clerk in two vers, "what is bettre than Gold? Jaspre. What is bettre than Jaspre? Wisdom. And what is bettre than Wisdom? Womman. And what is bettre than a good Womman? No thyng."
- Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, Melibeus, line 2,300.
- The sweetest noise on earth, a woman's tongue;
A string which hath no discord.- Barry Cornwall, Rafaelle and Fornarina, scene 2.
- Her air, her manners, all who saw admired;
Courteous though coy, and gentle, though retired:
The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,
And ease of heart her every look convey'd.- George Crabbe, Parish Register, Part II.
- Whoe'er she be,
That not impossible she,
That shall command my heart and me.- Richard Crashaw, Wishes to his (Supposed) Mistress.
- Man was made when Nature was but an apprentice, but woman when she was a skilful mistress of her art.
- Cupid's Whirligig (1607).
- Les femmes ont toujours quelque arrière pensée.
- Women always have some mental reservation.
- Philippe Néricault Destouches, Dissipateur, V, 9.
- But were it to my fancy given
To rate her charms, I'd call them heaven;
For though a mortal made of clay,
Angels must love Ann Hathaway;
She hath a way so to control,
To rapture the imprisoned soul,
And sweetest heaven on earth display,
That to be heaven Ann hath a way;
She hath a way,
Ann Hathaway,—
To be heaven's self Ann hath a way.- Charles Dibdin, A Love Dittie. In his novel Hannah Hewitt (1795). Often attributed to Shakespeare.
- But in some odd nook in Mrs. Todgers's breast, up a great many steps, and in a corner easy to be overlooked, there was a secret door, with "Woman" written on the spring, which, at a touch from Mercy's hand, had flown wide open, and admitted her for shelter.
- Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, Volume II, Chapter XII.
- She was not made out of his head, Sir,
To rule and to govern the man;
Nor was she made out of his feet, Sir,
By man to be trampled upon.
* * * * *
But she did come forth from his side, Sir,
His equal and partner to be;
And now they are coupled together,
She oft proves the top of the tree.- Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England; collected by James Henry Dixon.
- Be then thine own home, and in thyself dwell;
Inn anywhere;
And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam,
Carrying his own home still, still is at home,
Follow (for he is easy-paced) this snail:
Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.
- For women with a mischief to their kind,
Pervert with bad advice our better mind.- John Dryden, The Cock and the Fox, line 555.
- A woman's counsel brought us first to woe,
And made her man his paradise forego,
Where at heart's ease he liv'd; and might have been
As free from sorrow as he was from sin.- John Dryden, The Cock and the Fox, line 557.
- I am resolved to grow fat and look young till forty, and then slip out of the world with the first wrinkle and the reputation of five and twenty.
- John Dryden, The Maiden Queen, Act III, scene 1.
- And that one hunting, which the devil design'd
For one fair female, lost him half the kind.- John Dryden, Theodore and Honoria, line 427.
- What all your sex desire is Sovereignty.
- John Dryden, Wife of Bath.
- Her lot is made for her by the love she accepts.
- George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter XLIII.
- When greater perils men inviron,
Then women show a front of iron;
And, gentle in their manner, they
Do bold things in a quiet way.- Thomas Dunn English, Betty Zane.
- There is no worse evil than a bad woman; and nothing has ever been produced better than a good one.
- Euripides, Melanippe.
- Our sex still strikes an awe upon the brave,
And only cowards dare affront a woman.- George Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act V, scene 1.
- A woman friend! He that believes that weakness,
Steers in a stormy night without a compass.- John Fletcher, Woman Pleased, Act II, scene 1.
- Woman, I tell you, is a microcosm; and rightly to rule her, requires as great talents as to govern a state.
- Samuel Foote, The Minor.
- Toute femme varie
Bien fol est qui s'y fie.- Woman is always fickle—foolish is he who trusts her.
- François I; scratched with his ring on a window of Chambord Castle. (Quoted also "souvent femme.") See Brantome—Œuvres, VII. 395. Also Le Livre des Proverbes François, by Le Roux de Lincy. I. V. 231. (Ed. 1859).
- Are women books? says Hodge, then would mine were
An Almanack, to change her every year.- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard (Dec., 1737).
- A cat has nine lives and a woman has nine cats' lives.
- Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia.
- Es ist doch den Mädchen wie angeboren, dass sie allem gefallen wollen, was nur Augen hat.
- The desire to please everything having eyes seems inborn in maidens.
- Salomon Gessner, Evander und Alcima, III. 1.
- I am a woman—therefore I may not
Call to him, cry to him,
Fly to him,
Bid him delay not!- R. W. Gilder, A Woman's Thought.
- Denn geht es zu des Bösen Haus
Das Weib hat tausend Schritt voraus.- When toward the Devil's House we tread,
Woman's a thousand steps ahead. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, I. 21. 147.
- When toward the Devil's House we tread,
- Denn das Naturell der Frauen
Ist so nah mit Kunst verwandt.- For the nature of women is closely allied to art.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, II. 1.
- Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
- The eternal feminine doth draw us upward.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, II. 5. "La Féminine Eternel / Nous attire au ciel." French translation. of Goethe by H. Blaze de Bury.
- 'Tis Lilith.
Who?
Adam's first wife is she.
Beware the lure within her lovely tresses,
The splendid sole adornment of her hair;
When she succeeds therewith a youth to snare,
Not soon again she frees him from her jesses.- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, scene 21. Walpurgis Night. Bayard Taylor's translation.
- Ein edler Mann wird durch ein gutes Wort
Der Frauen weit geführt.- A noble man is led far by woman's gentle words.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Iphigenia auf Tauris, I, 2, 162.
- Der Umgang mit Frauen ist das Element guter Sitten.
- The society of women is the foundation of good manners.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Wahlverwandtschaften, II, 5.
- Mankind, from Adam, have been women's fools;
Women, from Eve, have been the devil's tools:
Heaven might have spar'd one torment when we fell;
Not left us women, or not threatened hell.- George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne, She-Gallants.
- Vente quid levius? fulgur. Quid fulgure? flamma
Flamma quid? mulier. Quid mulier? nihil.- What is lighter than the wind? A feather.
What is lighter than a feather? fire.
What lighter than fire? a woman.
What lighter than a woman? Nothing. - Harleian Manuscript, No. 3362, Folio 47.
- What is lighter than the wind? A feather.
- De wimmin, dey does de talkin' en de flyin', en de mens, dey does de walkin en de pryin', en betwixt en betweenst um, dey ain't much dat don't come out.
- Joel Chandler Harris, Brother Rabbit and His Famous Foot.
- That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.
- Matthew Henry, Note on Genesis II, 21 and 22. Also in Chaucer, Persones Tale.
- First, then, a woman will, or won't,—depend on't;
If she will do't, she will; and there's an end on't.
But, if she won't, since safe and sound your trust is,
Fear is affront: and jealousy injustice.- Aaron Hill, Epilogue to Zara.
- Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrent of a woman's will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on't;
And if she won't, she won't; so there's an end on't.- From the Pillar Erected on the Mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury. Examiner (May 31, 1829).
- Women may be whole oceans deeper than we are, but they are also a whole paradise better. She may have got us out of Eden, but as a compensation she makes the earth very pleasant.
- John Oliver Hobbes, The Ambassador, Act III.
- She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen.
- Homer, The Iliad, Book III, line 208. Pope's translation.
- O woman, woman, when to ill thy mind
Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend.- Homer, The Odyssey, Book XI, line 531. Pope's translation.
- What mighty woes
To thy imperial race from woman rose.- Homer, The Odyssey, Book XI, line 541. Pope's translation.
- But, alas! alas! for the woman's fate,
Who has from a mob to choose a mate!
'Tis a strange and painful mystery!
But the more the eggs the worse the hatch;
The more the fish, the worse the catch;
The more the sparks the worse the match;
Is a fact in woman's history.- Thomas Hood, Miss Kilmansegg, Her Courtship, Stanza 7.
- God in his harmony has equal ends
For cedar that resists and reed that bends;
For good it is a woman sometimes rules,
Holds in her hand the power, and manners, schools
And laws, and mind; succeeding master proud.
With gentle voice and smiles she leads the crowd,
The somber human troop.- Victor Hugo, Eviradnus, V.
- O woman! thou wert fashioned to beguile:
So have all sages said, all poets sung.- Jean Ingelow, The Four Bridges, Stanza 68.
- In that day seven women shall take hold of one man.
- Isaiah, IV. 1.
- I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.
- Samuel Johnson, Seward's Johnsoniana, 617.
- Ladies, stock and tend your hive,
Trifle not at thirty-five;
For, howe'er we boast and strive,
Life declines from thirty-five;
He that ever hopes to thrive
Must begin by thirty-five.- Samuel Johnson, To Mrs. Thrale, when Thirty-five, line 11.
- One woman reads another's character
Without the tedious trouble of deciphering.- Ben Jonson, New Inn, Act IV.
- And where she went, the flowers took thickest root,
As she had sow'd them with her odorous foot.- Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, Act I, scene 1.
- Nulla fere causa est in qua non femina litem moverit.
- There's scarce a case comes on but you shall find
A woman's at the bottom. - Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), VI. 242.
- There's scarce a case comes on but you shall find
- Vindicta
Nemo magis gaudet, quam femina.- Revenge we find,
The abject pleasure of an abject mind
And hence so dear to poor weak woman kind. - Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), XIII. 191.
- Revenge we find,
- I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful—a faery's child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.- John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci.
- When the Hymalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted, rends the peasant tooth and nail,
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.- Rudyard Kipling, The Female of the Species.
- Ich hab' es immer gesagt: das Weib wollte die Natur zu ihrem Meisterstücke machen.
- I have always said it—Nature meant woman to be her masterpiece.
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Emilia Galotti, V, 7.
- Was hätt ein Weiberkopf erdacht, das er
Nicht zu beschönen wüsste?- What could a woman's head contrive
Which it would not know how to excuse? - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan der Weise, III.
- What could a woman's head contrive
- 'Twas kin' o' kingdom-come to look
On sech a blessed cretur.- James Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers. Introduction to Second Series. The Courtin', Stanza 7.
- Earth's noblest thing, a Woman perfected.
- James Russell Lowell, Irene, line 62.
- Parvula, pumilio, chariton mia tota merum sal.
- A little, tiny, pretty, witty, charming darling she.
- Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, IV. 1158.
- A cunning woman is a knavish fool.
- George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, Advice to a Lady.
- When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she [Florence Nightingale] may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.
- Mr. MacDonald, on the staff of the London Times, in a letter to that paper when leaving Scutari. See Pictorial History of the Russian War (1854–5–6), p. 310.
- Of all wild beasts on earth or in sea, the greatest is a woman.
- Menander, E Supposititio, p. 182.
- O woman, born first to believe us;
Yea, also born first to forget;
Born first to betray and deceive us,
Yet first to repent and regret.- Joaquin Miller, Charity.
- Too fair to worship, too divine to love.
- Henry Hart Milman, Apollo Belvidere.
- I always thought a tinge of blue
Improved a charming woman's stocking.- Richard Monckton Milnes, Four Lovers, II. In Summer.
- Disguise our bondage as we will,
'Tis woman, woman rules us still.- Thomas Moore, Sovereign Woman, Stanza 4.
- My only books
Were woman's looks,
And folly's all they've taught me.- Thomas Moore, The Time I've Lost in Wooing.
- The virtue of her lively looks
Excels the precious stone;
I wish to have none other books
To read or look upon.- Songs and Sonnets (1557).
- For if a young lady has that discretion and modesty, without which all knowledge is little worth, she will never make an ostentatious parade of it, because she will rather be intent on acquiring more, than on displaying what she has.
- Hannah More, Essays on Various Subjects, Thoughts on Conversation.
- Queens you must always be: queens to your lovers; queens to your husbands and your sons, queens of higher mystery to the world beyond…. But, alas, you are too often idle and careless queens, grasping at majesty in the least things, while you abdicate it in the greatest.
- D. M. Mulock. Quoted from Ruskin on the title page of The Woman's Kingdom.
- A penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree.
- Carolina, Baroness Nairne, The Laird o' Cockpen.
- So I wonder a woman, the Mistress of Hearts,
Should ascend to aspire to be Master of Arts;
A Ministering Angel in Woman we see,
And an Angel need cover no other Degree.- Charles Neaves, O why should a Woman not get a Degree?
- Who trusts himself to women, or to waves,
Should never hazard what he fears to lose.- John Oldmixon, Governor of Cyprus.
- What mighty ills have not been done by woman!
Who was't betray'd the Capitol? A woman;
Who lost Mark Antony the world? A woman;
Who was the cause of a long ten years' war,
And laid at last old Troy in ashes? Woman;
Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!- Thomas Otway, The Orphan, Act III, scene 1.
- Who can describe
Women's hypocrisies! their subtle wiles,
Betraying smiles, feign'd tears, inconstancies!
Their painted outsides, and corrupted minds,
The sum of all their follies, and their falsehoods.- Thomas Otway, Orpheus.
- O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man: we had been brutes without you;
Angels are painted fair, to look like you:
There's in you all that we believe of Heaven,
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love.- Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved, Act I, scene 1.
- Wit and woman are two frail things, and both the frailer by concurring.
- Thomas Overbury, News from Court. Daniel Webster, Devil's Law, Act I, scene 2.
- Still an angel appear to each lover beside,
But still be a woman to you.- Thomas Parnell, When thy Beauty Appears.
- Ah, wasteful woman! she who may
On her sweet self set her own price,
Knowing man cannot choose but pay,
How has she cheapen'd Paradise!
How given for nought her priceless gift,
How spoil'd the bread and spill'd the wine,
Which, spent with due respective thrift,
Had made brutes men and men divine.- Coventry Patmore, The Angel in the House, Unthrift, Book I, Canto III. 3.
- To chase the clouds of life's tempestuous hours,
To strew its short but weary way with flow'rs,
New hopes to raise, new feelings to impart,
And pour celestial balsam on the heart;
For this to man was lovely woman giv'n,
The last, best work, the noblest gift of Heav'n.- Thomas Love Peacock, The Visions of Love.
- Women's liberation could have not succeeded if science had not provided them with contraception and household technology.
- Max Ferdinand Perutz, The Impact of Science on Society: The Challenge for Education, in J. L. Lewis and P. J. Kelly (eds.), Science and Technology and Future Human Needs (1987), 18.
- Those who always speak well of women do not know them sufficiently; those who always speak ill of them do not know them at all.
- Guillaume Pigault, Lebrun.
- Nam multum loquaces merito omnes habemus,
Nec mutam profecto repertam ullam esse
Hodie dicunt mulierem ullo in seculo.- I know that we women are all justly accounted praters; they say in the present day that there never was in any age such a wonder to be found as a dumb woman.
- Plautus, Aulularia, II. 1. 5.
- Multa sunt mulierum vitia, sed hoc e multis maximum,
Cum sibi nimis placent, nimisque operam dant ut placeant viris.- Women have many faults, but of the many this is the greatest, that they please themselves too much, and give too little attention to pleasing the men.
- Plautus, Pœnulus, V. 4. 33.
- Mulieri nimio male facere melius est onus, quam bene.
- A woman finds it much easier to do ill than well.
- Plautus, Truculentus, II. 5. 17.
- Oh! say not woman's heart is bought
With vain and empty treasure.
* * * * *
Deep in her heart the passion glows;
She loves and loves forever.- Isaac Pocock, Song, in The Heir of Vironi, produced at Covent Garden, Feb. 27, 1817.
- Our grandsire, Adam, ere of Eve possesst,
Alone, and e'en in Paradise unblest,
With mournful looks the blissful scenes survey'd,
And wander'd in the solitary shade.
The Maker saw, took pity, and bestow'd
Woman, the last, the best reserv'd of God.- Alexander Pope, January and May, line 63.
- Give God thy broken heart, He whole will make it:
Give woman thy whole heart, and she will break it.- Edmund Prestwich, The Broken Heart.
- Be to her virtues very kind;
Be to her faults a little blind.
Let all her ways be unconfin'd;
And clap your padlock—on her mind.- Matthew Prior, An English Padlock.
- The gray mare will prove the better horse.
- Matthew Prior, Epilogue to Lucius. Last line. Butler, Hudibras, Part II, Canto L, line 698. Fielding—The Grub Street Opera, Act II, scene 4. Pryde and Abuse of Women. (1550). The Marriage of True Wit and Science. Macaulay—History of England, Volume I, Chapter III. Footnote suggests it arose from the preference generally given to the gray mares of Flanders over the finest coach horses of England. Proverb traced to Holland. (1546).
- That if weak women went astray,
Their stars were more in fault than they.- Matthew Prior, Hans Carvel.
- It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
- Proverbs, XXI. 9.
- Like to the falling of a star,
* * * *
Like to the damask rose you see,
Or like the blossom on the tree.- Francis Quarles, Argalus and Parthenia. Claimed by him but attributed to John Phillipot (Philpott) in Harleian Manuscript, 3917. Folio 88 b., a fragment written about the time of James I. Credited to Simon Wastell (1629) by Mackay, as it is appended to his Microbiblion. Said to be an imitation of an earlier poem by Bishop Henry King.
- If she undervalue me,
What care I how fair she be?- Sir Walter Raleigh.
- If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be?- Sir Walter Raleigh. See Bayley's Life of Raleigh.
- There is, of course, ample research demonstrating myriad, robust effects of overt, easily recognized sexism (APA, 2007; Ward & Harrison, 2005). Images of women as sex objects have been shown to increase men’s attributions of responsibility to female rape victims (Wyer, Bodenhausen, & Gorman, 1985) and produce more favorable attitudes toward interpersonal violence, rape myth beliefs, and gender stereotypes (Lanis & Covell, 1995; MacKay & Covell, 1997). In addition, print images of women in traditional homemaker roles caused women’s attitudes toward political participation to become less favorable (Schwarz, Wagner, Bannert, & Mathes, 1987). Exposure to sexist television commercials produced comparable effects among women, including decreased body satisfaction (Lavine, Sweeney, & Wagner, 1999), reduced achievement aspirations for the future (Geis, Brown, Jennings, & Porter, 1984), diminished leadership aspirations (Davies, Spencer, & Steele, 2005), and lower preference for quantitative careers (Davies, Spencer, Quinn, & Gerhardstein, 2002). After viewing sexist commercials, men assigned to the role of interviewer exhibited more sexist behavior toward a female confederate (L. A. Rudman & Borgida, 1995). Even sexism in music videos has been shown to produce more gender-stereotyped perceptions of cross-sex social interactions (Hansen & Hansen, 1988).
- There is no doubt the stereotype of woman-as-victim, even willing victim, is pervasive (Cortese, 2008; Kilbourne, 1999; Stankiewicz & Rosselli, 2008). Representations of sexualized violence against women permeate mainstream culture, from fashion, television, and video games to popular music (Coy et al., 2011; Horeck, 2014). Violence against women is, therefore, normalized and acceptance of rape myths is prevalent (Hayes, Abbott, & Cook, 2016; Suarez & Gadalla, 2010). Thus, images containing latent sexism, including women possibly injured, dismembered, “packaged” like a product, or in potentially dangerous situations, may promote acceptance of sexual assault by priming associations with the ubiquitous ideas about women as victims. When the sexism is unrecognized, it may be even more difficult to override or reject these automatic thoughts than if the sexism is obvious.
- Arleigh J. Reichl, Jordan I. Ali, Kristina Uyeda, "Latent Sexism in Print Ads Increases Acceptance of Sexual Assault", Sage Journals, (April 20, 2018).
- That, let us rail at women, scorn and flout 'em,
We may live with, but cannot live without 'em.- Frederick Reynolds, My Grandfather's Will, Act III.
- A woman is the most inconsistent compound of obstinacy and self-sacrifice that I am acquainted with.
- Jean Paul Richter, Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces, Chapter V.
- O wild, dark flower of woman,
Deep rose of my desire,
An Eastern wizard made you
Of earth and stars and fire.- Charles G. D. Roberts, The Rose of my Desire.The most ancient Teachings always highly regarded the Feminine Principle, and even female divinities were considered by them to be the most sacred. We can now find traces of these most ancient cults among the American Indians, whose priesthood is headed by women; women also head the clan, and the whole line of inheritance is considered as coming from the woman's side. Likewise, there is no distinction between the two Origins in the Teaching of Buddha, and woman, as well as man, can reach the state of Arhatship. And even now in India, in spite of the fact that the later Brahmins humiliated woman because of greed and self-interest, the cult of the Goddess Kali is nevertheless spread most widely.
The last of the known sages of India, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, were worshippers of the Divine Origin in its aspect of the Mother of the World. Indeed, it is the ignorant and avaricious distortion of the cosmic law that has placed woman in a subjugated position.
Certainly it would be wrong to blame the Masculine Principle alone for the situation created; woman, too, is at fault. Many women welcomed being constantly in custody as wards, and precisely this weakened their strength and dulled their abilities. Therefore, nowadays a reverse order is necessary. Woman must accept the struggle against life's obstacles in order to temper her strength and manifest her true nature. - Helena Roerich
- Charles G. D. Roberts, The Rose of my Desire.The most ancient Teachings always highly regarded the Feminine Principle, and even female divinities were considered by them to be the most sacred. We can now find traces of these most ancient cults among the American Indians, whose priesthood is headed by women; women also head the clan, and the whole line of inheritance is considered as coming from the woman's side. Likewise, there is no distinction between the two Origins in the Teaching of Buddha, and woman, as well as man, can reach the state of Arhatship. And even now in India, in spite of the fact that the later Brahmins humiliated woman because of greed and self-interest, the cult of the Goddess Kali is nevertheless spread most widely.
- The most ancient Teachings always highly regarded the Feminine Principle, and even female divinities were considered by them to be the most sacred. We can now find traces of these most ancient cults among the American Indians, whose priesthood is headed by women; women also head the clan, and the whole line of inheritance is considered as coming from the woman's side. Likewise, there is no distinction between the two Origins in the Teaching of Buddha, and woman, as well as man, can reach the state of Arhatship. And even now in India, in spite of the fact that the later Brahmins humiliated woman because of greed and self-interest, the cult of the Goddess Kali is nevertheless spread most widely.
The last of the known sages of India, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, were worshippers of the Divine Origin in its aspect of the Mother of the World. Indeed, it is the ignorant and avaricious distortion of the cosmic law that has placed woman in a subjugated position.
Certainly it would be wrong to blame the Masculine Principle alone for the situation created; woman, too, is at fault. Many women welcomed being constantly in custody as wards, and precisely this weakened their strength and dulled their abilities. Therefore, nowadays a reverse order is necessary. Woman must accept the struggle against life's obstacles in order to temper her strength and manifest her true nature.- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)
- The famous philosopher's stone cannot be discovered or created without the participation of woman... The first task which faces women is to insist in all countries upon full rights and equal education with men; to try with all their might to develop their thinking faculties, and, above all, to learn to stand on their own feet without leaning altogether upon men. In the West there are many fields which are now available to women, and one must admit that they are quite successful in all of them.
It is necessary to awaken in woman herself a great respect for her own Origin; she should realize her great destiny as a bearer of the higher energy. Indeed, it is woman's intuition which should again, as in the better periods of history, lead humanity on the path of progress...- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)
- The combinations of the luminaries are favorable for the awakening of women, and I believe that the new influx of psychic energy will be utilized by women for lofty tasks and in search of new achievements for the good of humanity. Let the fire of achievement in the name of great service be truly kindled in woman. The quality of self-sacrifice is fundamental in woman, but she should learn not to limit her self-sacrifice to the narrow concept of home life, which is often nothing more than encouragement of the family's egotism— she should apply it on a world scale. I believe that woman should be even more educated and cultured than man, for indeed it is she who instills in her family the first concepts of knowledge, culture, and understanding of statesmanship.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)
- In all domains of science, art, social work, and government, woman has proved to be capable of reaching the greatest heights when circumstances were favorable... And the many other talented women—actresses, painters, poets, among all nationalities! So many wise leaders, warriors, and great saints among women! The image of St. Theresa, the Spaniard, is not less than that of St Francis of Assisi... It would be well to also remember the slandered image of Aspasia. Socrates used to call her his teacher, and the great Plato mentioned her reverently in his writings. Also, through her many useful reforms the reign of the woman-Pharaoh, Hatsepsut, far surpassed that of many Pharaohs. And was she not the one who, by her wise rule, paved the way for the latter victories of Tethmosis III?
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)
- According to the Sacred Teaching, the fall of humanity began from the time of the abasement of the Feminine Principle. Therefore, with the beginning of the Epoch of the Mother of the World woman should realize that she herself contains all forces, and the moment she shakes of the age-old hypnosis of her seemingly lawful subjugation and mental inferiority and occupies herself with a manifold education, she will create in collaboration with man a new and better world. Indeed, it is essential that woman herself refute the unworthy and profoundly ignorant assertion about her passive receptivity and therefore her inability to create independently. But in the entire Cosmos there is no passive element. In the chain of creation each manifestation in its turn becomes relatively passive or active, giving or receiving.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (9 August 1937)
- Cosmos affirms the greatness of woman's creative principle. Woman is a personification of nature, and it is nature that teaches man, not man nature. Therefore, may all women realize the grandeur of their origin, and may they strive for knowledge. Where there is knowledge, there is power. Ancient legends actually attribute to woman the role of the guardian of sacred-knowledge. Therefore, may she now also remember her defamed ancestress, Eve, and again harken to the voice of her intuition in not only eating of but also planting as many tree, bearing the fruits of the knowledge of good and evil as possible. And as before, when she deprived Adam of his dull, senseless bliss, so let her now lead him on to a still broader vista and into the majestic battle with the chaos of ignorance for her divine rights.
- Women must without delay begin to perfect themselves in all fields, and this is not done at a moment's notice. First of all, we women have so much to outlive. Let us develop primarily a sense of our own dignity and learn to lean courageously on our own strength and knowledge, in order to join in, as well as accept, responsibility for the great structure of General Good.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)
- Let us also recall the ancient times when, in spite of the fact that masculine egoism always attempted to suppress the achievements of women, there were always some illumined minds that did not submit to this shameful weakness.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)
- With the demeaning of woman the coarsening and degeneration of humanity was unavoidable. There exists a most ancient saying, "Where women are revered and safeguarded, prosperity reigns and the gods rejoice." The New Epoch... will bring the renaissance of woman. The Epoch of Maitreya is the Epoch of the Mother of the World.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (5 April 1938)
- I hasten to fulfill your request and to give my opinion regarding the Call to the Women of the Whole World. I do not see why you cannot put this thought into practice. Each reminder about woman's dignity and the importance of women in constructing new forms of life is highly useful and timely. The advancement of women in governmental circles and their successful execution of various public duties in many countries have so strongly affirmed the recognition of their equal abilities that only very backward consciousnesses can raise objections in principle to this statement and to the admittance of women to the most responsible positions. Your young country, now living in its springtime and aspiring toward the welfare and renascence of its people, of course can but harken to the steps of evolution; therefore it should rejoice at the possibility of strengthening its spiritual and intellectual power by elevating the level of consciousness and dignity of its women. "It is not possible for the bird of humanity to fly on only one wing."
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (23 April 1938)
- C'est chose qui moult me deplaist,
Quand poule parle et coq se taist.- It is a thing very displeasing to me when the hen speaks and the cock is silent.
- Roman de la Rose, XIV. Cent.
- Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve)
That ere the snakes, her sweet tongue could deceive
And her enchanted hair was the first gold—
And still she sits, young while the earth is old
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright net she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lilith.
- Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted.
- Bertrand Russell, "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish", Unpopular Essays (1950).
- Ne l'onde solca, e ne l'arena semina,
E'l vago vento spera in rete accogliere
Chi sue speranze fonda in cor di femina.- He ploughs the waves, sows the sand, and hopes to gather the wind in a net, who places his hopes on the heart of woman.
- Jacopo Sannazaro, Ecloga Octava; "Plough the sands" found in Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), VII. Jeremy Taylor, Discourse on Liberty of Prophesying (1647), Introduction.
- Such, Polly, are your sex—part truth, part fiction;
Some thought, much whim, and all a contradiction.- Richard Savage, To a Young Lady.
- Ehret die Frauen! sie flechten und weben
Himmlische Rosen in's irdische Leben.- Honor women! they entwine and weave heavenly roses in our earthly life.
- Friedrich Schiller, Würde der Frauen.
- The weakness of their reasoning faculty also explains why women show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men;… and why, on the contrary, they are inferior to men as regards justice, and less honourable and conscientious.
- Arthur Schopenhauer, On Women.
- In the beginning, said a Persian poet—Allah took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When he looked at the amalgam—it was a woman.
- William Sharp, in the Portfolio (July, 1894), p. 6.
- Woman reduces us all to the common denominator.
- Bernard Shaw, Great Catherine, scene 1.
- The fickleness of the woman I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.
- Bernard Shaw, Philanderer, Act II.
- A lovely lady garmented in light.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Witch of Atlas, Stanza 5.
- She is her selfe of best things the collection.
- Sir Philip Sidney, The Arcadia, Thirsis and Dorus.
- Lor', but women's rum cattle to deal with, the first man found that to his cost,
And I reckon it's just through a woman the last man on earth'll be lost.- G. R. Sims, Moll Jarvis o' Morley.
- He beheld his own rougher make softened into sweetness, and tempered with smiles; he saw a creature who had, as it were, Heaven's second thought in her formation.
- Richard Steele, Christian Hero (of Adam awaking, and first seeing Eve).
- She is pretty to walk with,
And witty to talk with,
And pleasant too, to think on.- Sir John Suckling, Brennoralt, Act II, scene 1.
- Of all the girls that e'er was seen,
There's none so fine as Nelly.- Jonathan Swift, Ballad on Miss Nelly Bennet.
- Daphne knows, with equal ease,
How to vex and how to please;
But the folly of her sex
Makes her sole delight to vex.- Jonathan Swift, Daphne.
- Lose no time to contradict her,
Nor endeavour to convict her;
Only take this rule along,
Always to advise her wrong,
And reprove her when she's right;
She may then crow wise for spite.- Jonathan Swift, Daphne.
- O Woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their own hearts…. You are one-half woman and one-half dream.
- Rabindranath Tagore, Gardener, 59.
- Femmina è cosa garrula e fallace:
Vuole e disvuole, è folle uom chi sen fida,
Si tra se volge.- Women have tongues of craft, and hearts of guile,
They will, they will not; fools that on them trust;
For in their speech is death, hell in their smile. - Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme, XIX. 84.
- Women have tongues of craft, and hearts of guile,
- All virtuous women, like tortoises, carry their house on their heads, and their chappel in their heart, and their danger in their eye, and their souls in their hands, and God in all their actions.
- Jeremy Taylor, Life of Christ, Part I, II. 4.
- A woman's honor rests on manly love.
- Esais Tegnèr, Fridthjof's Saga, Canto VIII.
- Airy, fairy Lilian.
- Alfred Tennyson, Lilian.
- Novi ingenium mulierum;
Nolunt ubi velis, ubi nolis cupiunt ultro.- I know the nature of women. When you will, they will not; when you will not, they come of their own accord.
- Terence, Eunuchus, IV. 7. 42.
- When I say that I know women, I mean that I know that I don't know them. Every single woman I ever knew is a puzzle to me, as I have no doubt she is to herself.
- William Makepeace Thackeray, Mr. Brown's Letters.
- Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it.
- William Makepeace Thackeray, The Luck of Barry Lyndon, 1.
- Regard the society of women as a necessary unpleasantness of social life, and avoid it as much as possible.
- Leo Tolstoy, Diary.
- Woman is more impressionable than man. Therefore in the Golden Age they were better than men. Now they are worse.
- Leo Tolstoy, Diary.
- I think Nature hath lost the mould
Where she her shape did take;
Or else I doubt if Nature could
So fair a creature make.- A Praise of his Lady. In Tottel's Miscellany (1557). The Earl of Surrey wrote similar lines, A Praise of his Love (Before 1547).
- He is a fool who thinks by force or skill
To turn the current of a woman's will.- Sir Samuel Tuke, The Adventure of Five Hours (1663), Act V, scene 3, line 483. Translation from Calderon.
- A slighted woman knows no bounds.
- John Vanbrugh, The Mistake, Part I, Act II, scene 1.
- Let our weakness be what it will, mankind will still be weaker; and whilst there is a world, 'tis woman that will govern it.
- John Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, Act III.
- All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
- "Woman" must ever be a woman's highest name,
And honors more than "Lady," if I know right.- Walter von der Vogelweide. Translated in the Minnesinger of Germany, Woman and Lady.
- My wife is one of the best wimin on this Continent, altho' she isn't always gentle as a lamb with mint sauce.
- Artemus Ward, A War Meeting.
- She is not old, she is not young,
The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.
The haggard cheek, the hungering eye,
The poisoned words that wildly fly,
The famished face, the fevered hand—
Who slights the worthiest in the land,
Sneers at the just, contemns the brave,
And blackens goodness in its grave.- William Watson, Woman with the Serpent's Tongue.
- It's also rooted in this history of hysteria. Before Freud, it was understood as a physical disease that was sort of inherent in women. That idea was retained in some ways, but I think it's clearly another way of [medical professionals] letting [themselves] off the hook for not actually doing the scientific research to understand what's going on: “Women are just sickly” or “it’s normal for them to have pain.”
- "How Doctors Gaslight Women into Doubting Their Own Pain", VICE, Suzannah Weiss, Mar 6 2018
- Not from his head was woman took,
As made her husband to o'erlook;
Not from his feet, as one designed
The footstool of the stronger kind;
But fashioned for himself, a bride;
An equal, taken from his side.- Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures.
- Oh! no one. No one in particular. A woman of no importance.
- Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance (1893), Act I.
- Angels listen when she speaks;
She's my delight, all mankind's wonder;
But my jealous heart would break
Should we live one day asunder.- John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Song. My Dear Mistress has a Heart, Stanza 2.
- Shall I, wasting in despaire,
Dye because a woman's faire?
Or make pale my cheeks with care
Cause another's rosie are?
Be shee fairer than the day,
Or the flow'ry meads in May;
If she be not so to me,
What care I how faire shee be?- George Wither, Mistresse of Philarete, reported in Percy's Reliques.
- I think it generally means killing female heroes is supposed to elicit more emotions from readers than killing male readers. (...) I think the wholesale slaughter is because there's a lot of writers who think all major character motivation is made by killing folk and women characters are easier to kill than male characters since so few of them are major heroes on their own. (...) I fear, that most boys want to read stories about big muscled guy heroes showing off than gal heroes. They want the girl heroes there in the background, and even important to books, but they rarely if ever buy a book starring a female. Younger boys I think are frightened to some degree by the overly muscled women even while they may find a sexual delight in them.
Having always created lots of female characters, and doing some good work on them, I think, by making them all individuals (whether someone liked the Titans or not, Starfire, Wonder Girl and Raven were not in any way the same person in different latex costumes), I find most female heroes that other writers do are simply cookie-cut outs. Since a very few of these are anything special, it's easy to knock them off. Acknowledging that does not condone it. It merely explains it.
- … it is shameful that there are so few women in science... In China there are many, many women in physics. There is a misconception in America that women scientists are all dowdy spinsters. This is the fault of men. In Chinese society, a woman is valued for what she is, and men encourage her to accomplishments yet she remains eternally feminine.
- Chien-Shiung Wu As quoted in "Queen of Physics", Newsweek (20 May 1963) no. 61, 20.
- The liberated woman, or svairini, is one who refuses a husband and has relations in her own home or in other houses.
- Yashodhara, Jayamangala (twelfth-century commentary on the Kama Sutra) Book 6, chapter 6, verse 50.
The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)
edit- Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 249-250.
- A woman's notes will not signify much truly, no more than her tongue.
- Scroggs, L.C.J., Trial of Richard Langhorn (1679), 7 How. St. Tr. 437.
- A woman cannot be a pastor by the law of God. I say more, it is against the law of the realm.
- Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, C.J., Colt and another v. Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1612), Hob. Rep. 148.
- Women had prerogative in deliberative sessions touching either peace-government, or martial affairs.
- On the custom of the ancient Britons; Selden's Works, Vol. 3, p. 10, cited in Chorlton v. Lings (1868), L. R. 4 C. P. 389.
- All fiefs were originally masculine, and women were excluded from the succession of them because they cannot keep secrets.
- West's Inquiry into the manner of creating Peers, 44, cited 7 Mod. 272.