Quotes about woman
page 12

“She was a beautiful woman." Gavner sighed, tracing the outline of one of the elephants. "She just had very bad taste in underwear …"
"And in boyfriends," I added impishly.
Mr. Crepsley burst into laughter at that”

Darren Shan book Vampire Mountain

Source: Vampire Mountain

Beauty, Laughter

“So,” Wanda cried, “a woman in furs is nothing more than a large cat, a charged electric battery?”

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch book Venus in Furs

Source: Venus in Furs

Cats

“Were you playing with Stuart?" she asked.
The question was loaded. I was a filthy, filthy woman, and even the five-year-old knew it.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

Question

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

Nelson Algren book A Walk on the Wild Side

In jail, Cross-Country Kline to Dove Linkhorn.
Source: A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
Context: But blow wise to this, buddy, blow wise to this: Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. Never let nobody talk you into shaking another man's jolt. And never you cop another man's plea. I've tried 'em all and I know. They don't work. / Life is hard by the yard, son. But you don't have to do it by the yard. By the inch it's a cinch. And money can't buy everything. For example: poverty.

Moms, Sleep

“I never could understand why some writers treat women as helpless. Every woman I know is strong in her own unique way.”

Terry Goodkind (1948) American novelist

Women, Way, Understanding, Strong

“Once lay down the rule that the job comes first and you throw that job open to every individual, man or woman, fat or thin, tall or short, ugly or beautiful, who is able to do that job better than the rest of the world.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Source: Are Women Human? Astute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

World, Beauty

“The witty woman is a tragic figure in American life. Wit destroys eroticism and eroticism destroys wit, so women must choose between taking lovers and taking no prisoners.”

Florence King (1936–2016) American writer

Life, Women, Lovers

“I'm not ashamed to dress "like a woman" because I don't think it's shameful to be a woman.”

Iggy Pop (1947) American rock singer-songwriter, musician, and actor

Thinking

“Watching him with one eye, she wondered if men ever figured out that they were more appealing when they were pursuing their own work than when they were pursuing a woman.”

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Source: The Sparrow

Men

“When a man or woman is truly honest, it is virtually impossible to insult them personally.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Personality

“I needed to choose between the one thing that really filled m thoughts-my love for that woman-and losing my freedom and all the choices that the future promised me. To be honest, the decision was easy.
-Lukas Jessen-Petersen”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

Love, Decision, Freedom, Future

“When you go to a country, you must learn how to say two things: how to ask for food, and to tell a woman that you love her. Of these the second is more important, for if you tell a woman you love her, she will certainly feed you.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Love, Food, Learning, Country

“To be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case.
To exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case – that is, to be killed.
This is the moral of the fairy tale about the perfect woman.”

Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist

Source: The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography

Perfection

“When I encounter a sunrise, a painting, a woman, or an idea that makes my heart bound like a young calf, then I know I am standing in front of happiness.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Happiness, Idea, Heart, Painting

“It's easy to confuse a woman for a philosophy”

Zadie Smith On Beauty

Source: On Beauty

“Sex between a man and a woman can be wonderful, provided you can get between the right man and the right woman.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Sex

“Have you ever known me to be rude to a lady?" "I have seen you be intentionally rude to a woman. I have never seen you be rude to a lady.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“I do regard her as one who is too modest for the world in general to be aware of half her accomplishments, and too highly accomplished for modesty to be natural of any other woman.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

World, Nature

“In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

As quoted in Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anaïs to Zee (1997) by Wayne M. Bryant, p. 143
Attributed

Love, Fear, Feeling

“Mine was the unbearable jealousy a cultured pearl must feel toward a genuine one. Or can there be such a thing in this world as a man who is jealous of the woman who loves him, precisely because of her love?”

Yukio Mishima book Confessions of a Mask

Source: Confessions of a Mask (1949), p. 208.
Context: I received an impassioned letter from Sonoko. There was no doubt that she was truly in love. I felt jealous. Mine was the unbearable jealousy a cultured pearl must feel toward a genuine one. Or can there be such a thing in this world as a man who is jealous of the woman who loves him, precisely because of her love?

Love, World, Jealousy, Feeling

“To be a woman is a great adventure;
To drive men mad is a heroic thing.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Source: Doctor Zhivago

Men, Madness

“Alright, you'll get your bonus, buy play nice with her. Keep your sarcasm to a minimum. (Kyrian)
Yes, O Great Lord and Master. Be nice to woman, keep mouth shut. (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

“I say that there is no role for women—there is, instead, a role for each woman, and she must make it for herself.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Women

“A woman is human.

She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man.

Likewise, she is never less.

Equality is a given.

A woman is human.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Intelligence

“A woman had to choose her own particular unhappiness carefully. That was the only happiness in life: to choose the best unhappiness. An unwise move, good God, you could squander everything.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Source: Bark: Stories

Life, God, Happiness

“Hatori: "That being said, Yuki… when did you become a woman?"

Yuki: "How dare you say that after you've seen me naked so many times…”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 2

Time

“Till it has loved, no man or woman can become itself.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Love

“We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Women, God, Heart

“A man is truly a man when he wins the love of a good woman, earns her respect, and keeps her trust. Until you can do that, you're not a man.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love

“He wanted to work in Hot Woman Valhalla until he died of testosterone poisoning. (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“Christopher heard a pair of women gossiping nearby, whispering in disapproving undertones.

"… Ramsey was found flirting in a corner with a woman. They had to drag him away from her."

"Who was it?"

"His own wife."

"Oh, dear.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Women

“If a man can possess a woman sexually -really possess- he won't need to control her ideas, her opinions, her clothes, her friends, even her other lovers.”

Toni Bentley (1958) Australian writer

Lovers, Idea, Clothes

“If you married me, it would be scandalous and innapropriate, and doors would be closed to you."
"Good God, woman, I let two of my sisters marry Gypsies. Those doors have already been closed, bolted, and nailed shut.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Married By Morning

God, Sister

“I had never realized a woman could have to struggle to keep her hands off a man, but here I was, digging my nails into my palms, staring at the inside of my eyelids as though I could maybe see through them if I peered hard enough.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead to the World

Source: Dead to the World

“Woman and children can afford to be careless, men can not"-Don Corleone”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Men, Children

“The bathroom mirror has not budged, the woman who lives there can tell the truth from the stuff they say and looks me in the eye- says do you prefer the easy way? No? Well ok then, dont cry.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Truth, Way, Cry

“Just keep moving! we're almost there." "almost where?" Juno chuckled. "all roads lead there child. you should know that" "detention?" Percy asked. "Rome, child, the old woman said. "Rome”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“Mr. Rochester never courted Jane Eyre, Tessa pointed out.
No, he dressed up as a woman and terrified the poor girl out of her wits. Is that what you want?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Girl

“That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say No in any of them.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

A similar line was later used by Ira Gershwin in "The Saga of Jenny" in Lady in the Dark (1942): "In 27 languages she couldn't say no."
Our Mrs Parker (1934)
Source: While Rome Burns

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a thirty-something woman in possession of a satisfying career and fabulous hairdo must be in want of very little”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

Truth, Universe

“A woman's mind is her most precious weapon. It must not be employed clumsily or prematurely. Much like the aforementioned knife in the back, a clever gibe is most effective when it is unanticipated.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

“The heyday of woman's life is the shady side of fifty.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist

Life

“She has man's brain--a brain that a man should have were he much gifted--and woman's heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me when He made that so good combination.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

God, Fashion, Heart

“I wouldna cross the road to see a scrawny woman if she was stark naked and dripping wet. ~Jamie Fraser”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

“Will smirked, clearly pleased at the effect he was having. "I've no idea. I lost consciousness about then. I was having a lovely dream about a young woman who had mislaid all her clothes…”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Love, Dreams, Idea, Clothes

“I have always been a romantic; one of those who believes that a woman in pink circus tights holds all the secrets of the world.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

Secret, World

“What a woman wants is a reaction. What a man wants is a woman.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful.”

Germaine Greer (1939) Australian feminist author

Source: The Whole Woman

Beauty, Failure

“Um, thanks,” she said. It was nice to see one woman finally immune to that accent. That wasn’t to say Rose wasn’t a sucker for accents. She just preferred hers from the other side of Europe.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

“Any time your life is at stake and you can't find even one woman to come forward and say, 'This is a good man,' your problem isn't what kind of woman THEY are. Your problem is what kind of men YOU are.”

Pearl Cleage (1948) American novelist

Source: Just Wanna Testify

Life, Men, Problem, Time

“Great minds may have cold hearts. Form but no color. It is an incompleteness. And so they are afraid of any woman who both thinks and feels deeply.”

Sena Jeter Naslund (1942) American writer

Source: Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer

Color, Feeling, Thinking, Heart

“Trying to drown me woman?"
'You can't drown a SEAL,' she said. 'How embarrassing would that be?'
'God yes. Shoot me, hang me, let me die of infection from a hangnail, but don't let me die in the water. They'd send me to hell on principle.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: The Darkest Hour

God, Hell, Water

“The moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul; the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 160
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Four: Soul and Body

Love, Soul

“For a man to think he can fulfil his destiny without a woman is a misunderstanding, a miscalculation; it is reckless and folly. Certainly a woman is not everthing, but everything depends on her.”

Yasmina Khadra book What the Day Owes the Night

Source: Ce que le jour doit à la nuit

Thinking, Dependency

“I would rather have your friendship than the love of any other woman in the world!”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XII : A Tête-à-tête and a Discovery; Gilbert to Helen
Context: You couldn't have given me less encouragement, or treated me with greater severity than you did! And if you think you have wronged me by giving me your friendship, and occasionally admitting to me to the enjoyment of your company and conversation, when all hopes of close intimacy were vain — as indeed you always gave me to understand — if you think you have wronged me by this, you are mistaken; for such favours, in themselves alone, are not only delightful to my heart, but purifying, exalting, ennobling to my soul; and I would rather have your friendship than the love of any other woman in the world!

Love, Friendship, World

“Good Lord, woman. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that men have a specified word count set aside each day and if I don’t stop talking, my tongue will explode? (Syn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Fire

Men

“I don't see what women see in other women," I'd told Doctor Nolan in my interview that noon. "What does a woman see in a woman that she can't see in a man?"
Doctor Nolan paused. Then she said, "Tenderness.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Women

“Killing an animal to make a coat is sin. It wasn't meant to be, and we have no right to do it. A woman gains status when she refuses to see anything killed to be put on her back. Then she's truly beautiful.”

Doris Day (1922–2019) American actress, singer, and animal rights activist

Beauty, Animals

“An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Christie denied having made this remark, which had been attributed to her by her second husband Sir Max Mallowan in a news report (9 March 1954); according to Nigel Dennis, "Genteel Queen of Crime: Agatha Christie Puts Her Zest for Life Into Murder", Life, Volume 40, N° 20, 14 May 1956 http://books.google.com/books?id=p0wEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA102, she was quoting "a witty wife"; Quote Investigator reports on "An Archaeologist Is the Best Husband a Woman Can Have" as of uncertain origin. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/07/12/husband/ <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.

“He [Brian Fraser] told me that a man must be responsible for any see he sows, for it's his duty to take care of a woman and protect her. And if I wasna prepared to do that, then I'd no right to burden a woman with the consequences of my own actions.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

“she is no longer
the beautiful woman
she was. she sends
photos of herself
sitting upon a rock
by the ocean
alone and damned.
I could have had
her once. I wonder
if she thinks I
could have
saved her?”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Beauty, Photo, Thinking

“All hopes of eternity and all gain from the past he would have given to have her there, to be wrapped warm with him in one blanket, and sleep, only sleep. It seemed the sleep with the woman in his arms was the only necessity.”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Hope, Sleep, Past

“She knew that there were all kinds of ways to make a conquest and that one of the surest roads to a woman's genitals was through her sadness.”

Milan Kundera book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Source: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Sadness, Way

“I taught him, 'he quavered, "to trust in love. I said:'when love comes, that is reality.' I said: 'Passion does not blind. No. Passion is sanity, and the woman you love, she is the only person you will ever really understand.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Love, Understanding, Reality, Passion

“A battered wife is a married woman until she gets a divorce. Or until she kills the bastard.”

John Grisham book The Rainmaker

Source: The Rainmaker

“one of the good things about being a woman is that my level of testosterone poisoning is lower than most men's.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Obsidian Butterfly

Source: Obsidian Butterfly

Men

“The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Love

“We went sailing one time, and he wore a Speedo, and any smart woman should know that means bisexual at least.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Time

“I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Pleasure

“So tell me gentleman, tell me the time and place where it was easy to be a woman.”

Andrew Sean Greer (1970) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

Time

“Jem told me what Ragnor Fell said about my father,” Will said. “That for my father, there was only ever one woman he loved, and it was her for him, or nothing. You are that for me. I love you, and I will only ever love you until I die —”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love

“When a man takes a woman for granted, he still looks for reassurance that she is still right there.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“Because a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is a part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it.”

J.M. Coetzee book Disgrace

Source: Disgrace

World, Beauty, Parting

“Before she knew what she was about, she was jumping about like a crazy woman, yelling, “Yes! Yes! I win!”

“You don’t win,” Anthony snapped.

“Oh, it feels like I’ve won,” she reveled.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Viscount Who Loved Me

Feeling

“No black woman writer in this culture can write "too much". Indeed, no woman writer can write "too much"… No woman has ever written enough.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Source: remembered rapture: the writer at work

“It is the mind that speaks a woman's heart, not the vaginal walls.”

Mary Roach book Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Source: Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Heart

“The first symptom of true love in a man is timidity, in a young woman, boldness. This is surprising, and yet nothing is more simple. It is the two sexes tending to approach each other and assuming each the other's qualities.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Love, Sex

“A woman told me her child was autistic, and I thought she said artistic. So I said, 'Oh great. I'd like to see some of the things he's done.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

“I swear that woman had a previous career as a death-hunter selling tragic ballads down around the Seven Dials," said Will. "And I do wish she wouldn't sing about poisoning just after we've eaten.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Death, Singing

“If you don't want to have sex, I don't want to talk about our feelings."
He scrubbed his hand through his hair, looking confused. "Well, that's for damn sure the first time a woman's ever said that to me.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Sex, Feeling, Time

“There are women in my closet, hanging on the hangers. a different woman for each suit, each dress, each pair of shoes. I hoard clothes. My makeup spills from the bathroom drawers, and there are different women for different lipsticks.”

Marya Hornbacher (1974) American journalist

Women, Shoe, Clothes

“Every woman I had ever met who walked through the world appraised and classified by an extraordinary physicality had also received the keys to an unbearable solitude. It was the coefficient of their beauty, the price they had to pay.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

World, Beauty, Solitude

“When a man takes up arms, he does so for many reasons. Sometimes to punish, sometimes to intimidate or frighten. But when a woman picks up a weapon, she means to kill.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Clean Sweep

“Is God a man or a woman?
God could be an armadillo. I have no idea.”

Sherman Alexie book Reservation Blues

Source: Reservation Blues

God, Idea

“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Source: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657

Life, Men, Flying

“Whenever a woman requires too many things from a man, he’ll resent it. Let him give what he wants to give freely; then observe who he is.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“Praise not the day until evening has come, a woman until she is burnt, a sword until it is tried, a maiden until she is married, ice until it has been crossed, beer until it has been drunk.”

Michael Crichton book Eaters of the Dead

Source: Eaters of the Dead

Beer

“No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"Masculum et Feminam Creavit Eos," http://books.google.com/books?id=4cl5c4T9LWkC&q=%22No+matter+how+happily+a+woman+may+be+married+it+always+pleases+her+to+discover+that+there+is+a+nice+man+who+wishes+that+she+were+not%22&pg=PA337#v=onepage Ch. 30: Sententiæ http://books.google.com/books?id=VK0vR4fsaigC&q=%22No+matter+how+happily+a+woman+may+be+married+it+always+pleases+her+to+discover+that+there+is+a+nice+man+who+wishes+that+she+were+not%22&pg=PT1176#v=onepage <br class="br">1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)