And not a girl goes walking
Along the Cotswold lanes
But knows men’s eyes in April
Are quicker than their brains.John Drinkwater (1882-1937) English poet and dramatist
“Cotswald Love”
Quotations about:
women
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 1, ch. 5 / 1254b [tr. B. Jowett (1885)]
(Source)
Aristotle is arguing that there is a natural distinction between the rulers and ruled, starting first with animals, then with sex. Alternate translations:
- "Again, the relation of male to female is naturally that of superior and inferior, ruling and ruled, and the same kind of relation must necessarily exist in the case of all men generally." [tr. Bolland (1877)]
- "So is it naturally with the male and the female; the one is superior, the other inferior; the one governs, the other is governed; and the same rule must necessarily hold good with respect to all mankind." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
- "Again, as between the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject. And the same must also necessarily apply in the case of mankind as a whole." [tr. Rackham (1932)]
- "Further, the relation of male to female is by nature a relation of superior to inferior and ruler to ruled. The same must of necessity hold in the case of human being generally." [tr. Lord (1984)]
Susan smiled at me, giving Molly the Female Once-Over — a process by which one woman creates a detailed profile of another woman based upon about a million subtle details of clothing, jewelry, makeup, and body type, and then decides how much of a social threat she might be. Men have a parallel process, but it’s binary: Does he have beer? If yes, will he share with me?
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Changes, ch. 9 (2010)
If you rebel against high-heeled shoes, take care to do it in a very smart hat.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, and Fascism, ch. 79 (1928)
We live amid falling taboos. In our crowded little hour of history we have seen how the prejudice of religion no longer can bar the way to the White House. Some of you may live to see the day when the prejudice of sex no longer places the Presidency beyond the reach of a greatly gifted American lady. Long before them, I hope you will see a woman member of the Supreme Court of the United States. In Congress and in our State Legislatures we need more women to bring their sensitive experience to the shaping of our decisions.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Commencement Address, National Cathedral School for Girls, Washington (1962-06-05)
(Source)
Speaking on the occasion of his daughter, Linda Bird Johnson, graduating. Entered into the Congressional Record on 6 June. (He would similarly speak there at the graduation of his other daughter, Luci Baines Johnson (1965-06-01)).
Who loves not wine, women, and song
Remains a fool his whole life long.[Wer nicht liebt Weib, Wein und Gesang,
A Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang.]Martin Luther (1483-1546) German religious reformer
(Attributed)
Attributed in Matthias Claudius, Der Wandsbecker Bothe (1775). Inscription in the Luther Room, Wartburg, Germany.
A woman is a fickle, changeful thing!
[Varium et mutabile semper
femina.]Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 4, l. 569ff (4.469-570) [Mercury] (29-19 BC) [tr. Cranch (1872)]
(Source)
Warning Aeneas that Dido is likely to attack Aeneas' forces now that she knows he is deserting her.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
Still inconstant is a womans minde.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]
Who knows what hazards thy delay may bring?
Woman's a various and a changeful thing.
[tr. Dryden (1697)]
Woman is a fickle and ever changeable creature.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]
Away to sea! a woman's will
Is changeful and uncertain still.
[tr. Conington (1866)]
Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]
For woman's heart is shifting evermore.
[tr. Morris (1900)]
Away!
Changeful is woman's mood, and varying with the day.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 73]
A mutable and shifting thing
is woman ever.
[tr. Williams (1910)]
A fickle and changeful thing is woman ever.
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]
A shifty, fickle object
Is woman, always.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]
Woman was ever
A veering, weathercock creature.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]
An ever
uncertain and inconsistent thing is woman.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), l. 786-87]
Woman's a thing
Forever fitful and forever changing.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981)]
Women are unstable creatures, always changing.
[tr. West (1990)]
Woman is ever fickle and changeable.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
A woman is a fickle and worrisome thing.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]
Woman’s a thing
that’s always changing, shifting like the wind.
[tr. Fagles (2006), l. 710-11]
Females are a fickle thing, always prone to change.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]
See also:
All is vanity and everybody’s vain. Women are terribly vain. So are men — more so, if possible.
Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Vanity and Vanities” (1886)
(Source)
Women commend a modest Man, but like him not.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #5805 (1732)
(Source)
I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Eleanor Roosevelt Award to Anna Kross (1964-03-04)
(Source)
Preceding announcing his appointment of ten women to top administration posts. He further commented, after listing them:
This should, with the announcements that have preceded this one, and the ones that will follow this one, serve notice that this administration is not running a stag party.
Next to God, we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth having.
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Thoughts, Feelings, and Fancies (1857)
Some will object, that a comparison cannot fairly be made between the government of the male sex and the forms of unjust power which I have adduced in illustration of it, since these are arbitrary, and the effect of mere usurpation, while it on the contrary is natural. But was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
The Subjection of Women, ch. 1 (1869)
(Source)
The word “idiot” comes from a Greek root meaning private person. Idiocy is the female defect: intent on their private lives, women follow their fate through a darkness deep as that cast by malformed cells in the brain. It is no worse than the male defect, which is lunacy: men are so obsessed by public affairs that they see the world as by moonlight, which shows the outlines of every object but not the details indicative of their nature.
Rebecca West (1892-1983) British author, journalist, literary critic, travel writer [pseud. for Cicily Isabel Fairfield]
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Prologue (1941)
(Source)
Sometimes oddly paraphrased, "The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots."
When the candles are out, all women are fair.
Plutarch (AD 46-127) Greek historian, biographer, essayist [Mestrius Plutarchos]
Morals [Moralia], “Conjugal Precepts” #46
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "All women are alike when the lamp is put out."
