“There is a woman in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman.”
Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: «Cherchez la femme!»
[Dumas, Alexandre, Alexandre Dumas, père, Théâtre complet, http://www.archive.org/details/thtrecomplet24dumauoft, 2009-08-07, XXIV, 1889, Michel Lévy frères, éditeurs, Paris, French, 103], translation from The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations II.iii
See wikipedia cherchez la femme on how this phrase has come to be used.
Compare Juvenal satire VI.243 (circa 100 AD), "never yet was there a lawsuit which did not have a woman at the bottom of it" (translation by G. G. Ramsay), but in that case describing the litigiousness of Roman women.
Les Mohicans de Paris (The Mohicans of Paris) (1864 play)
Original
Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: 'Cherchez la femme'.
Les Mohicans de Paris, tome 2
Variant: Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: «Cherchez la femme!»
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Alexandre Dumas 123
French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer a… 1802–1870Related quotes
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Phenomenally.
Phenomenal Woman,
that's me.”
Letter to his daughter Constance de Maistre, Lettres, 146
Letters
Hard Headed Woman
Song lyrics, Tea for the Tillerman (1970)
“Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?”
Source: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The Shooting Script
“Sensuality is woman: bring your perfume.”
Original: La sensualità è donna: porta il tuo profumo.