A good and true woman is said to resemble a Cremona fiddle—age but increases its worth and sweetens its tone.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once gentle and deep.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Woman’s honor is nice as ermine; it will not bear a soil.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
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
A woman is more desirous of entering the state of matrimony than a man.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
A handsome woman is a jewel; a good woman is a treasure.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (c.1213–91) Persian Poet
Most men like in women what is most opposite their own characters.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
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 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
A woman is a shrewder observer of guests than a man.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
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
Men have sight; women insight.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
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
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
Some are so uncharitable as to think all women bad, and others are so credulous as to believe they are all good. All will grant her corporeal frame more wonderful and more beautiful than man’s. And can we think God would put a worse soul into her better body?
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
Love, which is only an episode in the life of a man, is the entire history of woman’s life.
—Anne Louise Germaine de Stael (1766–1817) French Woman of Letters
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
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
The foundation of domestic happiness is faith in the virtue of woman.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, 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
Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
There is a woman at the beginning of all great things.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
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
Honor to women! they twine and weave the roses of heaven into the life of man; it is they that unite us in the fascinating bonds of love; and, concealed in the modest veil of the graces, they cherish carefully the external fire of delicate feeling with holy hands.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Modern woman can not get away from love. She is no new woman.
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
If thou wouldst please the ladies, thou must endeavor to make them pleased with themselves.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
There are only two kinds of women, the plain and the colored.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
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