No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Activist, Political Advocate
When a guy goes to a hooker, he’s not paying her for sex, he’s paying her to leave.
—Unknown
Frigidity is largely nonsense. It is this generation’s catchword, one only vaguely understood and constantly misused. Frigid women are few. There is a host of diffident and slow-ripening ones.
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–78) American Children’s Writer, Poet, Children’s Books Author
Admittedly, a homosexual can be conditioned to react sexually to a woman, or to an old boot for that matter. In fact, both homo—and heterosexual experimental subjects have been conditioned to react sexually to an old boot, and you can save a lot of money that way.
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97) American Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Painter
Sex is like having dinner: sometimes you joke about the dishes, sometimes you take the meal seriously.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Sexuality is the lyricism of the masses.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
The passion between the sexes has appeared in every age to be so nearly the same, that it may always be considered, in algebraic language as a given quantity.
—Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) English Economist, Clergyman
Some people are better imagined in one’s bed than found there in the morning.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
I married a German. Every night I dress up as Poland and he invades me.
—Bette Midler (b.1945) American Actress, Singer
A Rescuer isn’t always a person. Addictions to alcohol or drugs, sexual addiction, workaholism—all the ways we numb out—can rescue the Victim from feeling his or her own feelings.
—David Emerald
Sex is more than an act of pleasure, its’ the ability to be able to feel so close to a person, so connected, so comfortable that it’s almost breathtaking to the point you feel you can’t take it. And at this moment you’re a part of them.
—Unknown
Embraces are cominglings from the head even to the feet, and not a pompous high priest entering by a secret place.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Skill makes love unending.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic and the others give me a stiff neck or lockjaw.
—Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68) American Actress
As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual’s sovereignty.
—Mario Vargas Llosa (1936–2025) Peruvian Novelist, Politician, Nobel Laureate
Because her instinct has told her, or because she has been reliably informed, the faded virgin knows that the supreme joys are not for her; she knows by a process of the intellect; but she can feel her deprivation no more than the young mother can feel the hardship of the virgin’s lot.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go its pretty damn good.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Sex is like snow; you never know how many inches you are going to get or how long it is going to last.
—Anonymous
Sex is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Writer
Electric flesh-arrows… traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears. It is the gong of the orgasm.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
A woman is handicapped by her sex, and handicaps society, either by slavishly copying the pattern of man’s advance in the professions, or by refusing to compete with man at all.
—Betty Friedan (1921–2006) American Feminist Author, Lecturer
The pleasure of living and the pleasure of the orgasm are identical. Extreme orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general fear of life.
—Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian Psychoanalyst
There is the pleasurable orgasm, like a rising sales graph, and there is the unpleasurable orgasm, slumping ominously like the Dow Jones in 1929.
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97) American Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Painter
Sex is hardly ever just about sex.
—Shirley MacLaine (b.1934) American Actress, Dancer, Activist
Sex lies at the root of life, and we can never learn to reverence life until we know how to understand sex.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Essayist, Physician
All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner go to my dentist any day.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Sexual love is undoubtedly one of the chief things in life, and the union of mental and bodily satisfaction in the enjoyment of love is one of its culminating peaks. Apart from a few queer fanatics, all the world knows this and conducts its life accordingly; science alone is too delicate to admit it.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Sex appeal is fifty percent what you’ve got and fifty percent what people think you’ve got.
—Sophia Loren (b.1934) Italian Actor
There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody.
—Florynce Kennedy (1916–2000) American Lawyer, Activist, Author
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