The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
There is a vein of inconsistency in every woman’s heart, within whose portals love hath entered.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
A woman is a shrewder observer of guests than a man.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
All men who avoid female society have dull perceptions and are stupid, or else have gross tastes, and revolt against what is pure.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
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 (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
To the disgrace of men it is seen, that there are women both more wise to judge what evil is expected, and more constant to bear it when it is happened.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
Women’s thoughts are ever turned apon appearing amiable to the other sex; they talk and move and smile with a design upon us; every feature of their faces, every part of their dress, is filled with snares and allurements. There would be no such animals as prudes or coquettes in the world were there not such an animal as man.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The society of women is the element of good manners.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
No amount of preaching, exhortation, sympathy, benevolence, will render the condition of our working women what it should be so long as the kitchen and the needle are subtsantially their only resources.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
A man only begins to know women as he grows old; and for my part, my idea of their cleverness rises every day.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
There are three classes into which all the women past seventy years of age I have ever known, were divided: that dear old soul; that old woman; that old witch.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Men have sight; women insight.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Women have more heart and more imagination than men.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
One reason why women are forbidden to preach the gospel, is, that they would persuade without argument and reprove without giving offence.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
God has placed the genius of women in their hearts; because the works of this genius are always works of love.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
Women do not transgress the bounds of decorum so often as men; but when they do they go greater lengths.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
A woman prefers poverty with the affection of her husband to riches without it.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The dignity of woman consists in being unknown to the world.—Her glory is the esteem of her husband; her pleasure the happiness of her family.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
A woman loves a poor youth rather than a rich old man.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
A woman has this quality in common with the angels, that those who suffer belong to her.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
Oh, if the loving, closed heart of a good woman should open before a man, how much controlled tenderness, how many veiled sacrifices and dumb virtues, would he see reposing therein!
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
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 (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Women have more good sense than men. They have fewer pretensions, are less implicated in theories, and judge of objects more from their immediate and involuntary impressions on the mind, and therefore more truly and naturally.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
There are only two kinds of women, the plain and the colored.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The most dangerous acquaintance a married woman can make is the female confidante.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Women are ever in extremes; they are either better or worse than men.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
She is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The best woman has always somewhat of a man’s strength; and the noblest man of a woman’s gentleness.
—Dinah Craik (1826–87) British Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Woman’s honor is nice as ermine; it will not bear a soil.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
A woman too often reasons from her heart; hence two-thirds of her mistakes and her troubles.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once gentle and deep.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
Women famed for their valor, their skill in politics, or their learning, leave the duties of their own sex, in order to invade the privileges of ours. I can no more pardon a fair one for endeavoring to wield the club of Hercules, than I could a man for endeavoring to twirl her distaff.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the spirit of a man and prostrate him in the dust seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
Women never truly command, till they have given their promise to obey; and they are never in more danger of being made slaves, than when the men are at their feet.
—George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish Dramatist
The deepest tenderness a woman can show to a man, is to help him to do his duty.
—Dinah Craik (1826–87) British Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Women govern us; let us try to render them more perfect. The more they are enlightened, so much the more we shall be. On the cultivation of the minds of women, depends the wisdom of man.
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep
The position of women has no fixed relation to the general level of culture. It has been higher in the remote past than in recent times, and amongst savages it is by no means uniformly low.
—Leonard Hobhouse (1864–1929) English Social Philosopher, Journalist
A woman schemes while plying the spindle.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Women that are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a total ignorance of vice.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Men are women’s playthings; woman is the devil’s.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
How many women are born too finely organized in sense and soul for the highway they must walk with feet unshod! Life is adjusted to the wants of the stronger sex. There are plenty of torrents to be crossed in its journey; but their stepping-stones are measured by the strides of men, and not of women.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
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 (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Women are the books, the arts, the academies, that show, contain, and nourish all the world.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The brain women never interest us like the heart women; white roses please less than red.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Win and wear her if you can.—She is the most delightful of God’s creatures—Heaven’s best gift—man’s joy and pride in prosperity, and his support and comfort in affliction.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
As the vine which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it in sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs, so is it beautifully ordered by Providence that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head and binding up the broken heart.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian