“What a woman says to her ardent lover should be written in wind and running water.”

“What woman here is so enamored of her own oppression that she cannot see her heelprint upon another woman's face? What woman's terms of oppression have become precious and necessary to her as a ticket into the fold of the righteous, away from the cold winds of self-scrutiny?”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

“In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

“A woman whose lover resigns her, and as if for her own sake, though without consulting her, is placed in a most awkward situation. What can she do? Take him at his word? That is easy to say, but hard to do, when all the hopes and affections are garnered in his love.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

“In response to Lady Mary Montague's line 'And we meet, with champagne and a chicken at last' (from Montague's poem 'The Lover: A Ballad'):
"What say you to such a supper with such a woman? … Is not her 'champagne and chicken' worth a forest or two? Is it not poetry?"”

Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) writer and poet from England

“Charlie asks her for a Perrier with lime. She says that San Pellegrino is what they have. He says it's all the same to him. Fancy water is fancy water.”

John Updike book Rabbit at Rest

“Clear waters wind
Around our village,
With long summer days
Full of loveliness;
Fluttering in and out
From the house beams
The swallows play;
Waterfowl disport together
As everlasting lovers; …
What more could I wish for?”

Du Fu (712–770) Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty

“For a woman, language spoken is an expression of what she is feeling. For a man, language spoken is an expression of what he is thinking. A woman says what is on her heart while a man says what is on his mind.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

“When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love