WOMEN QUOTES XXIV

quotations about women

You've heard it before, but are afraid to say it aloud for fear of sounding boastful. Southern women are prettier than others. But wait just a cotton pickin' minute. Is it true? Are we really prettier? I'll let you in on a little secret. We're not. Everyone just has that illusion because the truth is, we only try harder. Our secret weapon for loveliness, passed down by generations of Southern ladies, is our ability to make the best out of what we have, or in other words, "effort."

LESLIE ANNE TARABELLA

"Are Southern women prettier?", AL, April 3, 2017


Whatever may be thought of "woman's sphere," it is certain that its boundaries have been steadily enlarged; that an increased liberty, not only of secular employments and civil rights, but also of social intercourse, has been accorded to her with increasing civilization; and that, so far from losing, either in the delicacy and refinement of her own character, or in the chivalric homage paid to her by man, she has gained in both respects in the same ratio in which she has been freed from the trammels of an unnatural conventionalism, and elevated to a position of real equality with the dominant sex.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Old Testament Shadows of New Testament Truths

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Women are leaders everywhere you look--from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.

NANCY PELOSI

Glamour Magazine, January 2007

Tags: Nancy Pelosi


Let men be men -- and let women be women -- Women competing with men- does not help us -- We have better things to do -- like being mothers.

PAMELA ANDERSON

blog post, Pamela Anderson Foundation, April 4, 2017


In oranges and women courage is often mistaken for insanity.

SALLY ROBINSON

Iron Jawed Angels

Tags: courage


As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

Three Guineas


What, then, is feminine as contrasted with masculine? what is womanly as compared with manly, whether in literature or in life? Men and women have many qualities in common, and resemble more than they differ from each other. But while, speaking generally, the man's main occupations lie abroad, the woman's main occupation is at home. He has to deal with public and collective interests; she has to do with private and individual interests. We need not go so far as to say, with Kingsley, that man must work and woman must weep; but at least he has to fight and to struggle, she has to solace and to heal. Ambition, sometimes high, sometimes low, but still ambition--ambition and success are the main motives and purpose of his life. Her noblest ambition is to foster domestic happiness, to bring comfort to the afflicted, and to move with unostentatious but salutary step over the vast territory of human affection. While man busies himself with the world of politics, with the world of commerce, with the rise and fall of empires, with the fortunes and fate of humanity, woman tends the hearth, visits the sick, consoles the suffering--in a word, in all she does, fulfils the sacred offices of love.

ALFRED AUSTIN

The Bridling of Pegasus

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The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI

Keynote Address at NGO Forum on Women, Beijing China, August 31, 1995

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Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think -- in a deeper voice.

BILL COSBY

attributed, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever

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No woman marries for money: they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him.

CESARE PAVESE

This Business of Living, April 14, 1941

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The notion that women are less aesthetically profound and innovative than men--just not very important, if you know what I mean--doubtless spreads back to our beginnings as upright animals: the males hunted and killed for the family while the females stayed home in the cave and tended the strange little creatures they were giving birth to.

EDWARD ALBEE

Stretching My Mind

Tags: Edward Albee


A man, at least, is free; he can explore every passion, every land, overcome obstacles, taste the most distant pleasures. But a woman is continually thwarted. Inert and pliant at the same time, she must struggle against both the softness of her flesh and subjection to the law. Her will, like the veil tied to her hat by a string, flutters with every breeze; there is always some desire luring her on, some convention holding her back.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

Madame Bovary

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Everywhere there is pleasure you will find a woman in disguise.

JEAN BAUDRILLARD

Cool Memories

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According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome, the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man. A man's presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies.... A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. His presence may be fabricated, in the sense that he pretends to b capable of what he is not. But the pretence is always towards a power which he exercises on others. By contrast, a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her.

JOHN BERGER

Ways of Seeing

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A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.

MELINDA GATES

Woman's Day Magazine, October 2, 2007

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Speak no evil of women; I tell thee the meanest of them deserves our respect; for of women do we not all come?

PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA

The Mayor of Zalamea


Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself.

ROSEANNE BARR

attributed, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Health Fair

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In the choice of a wife, we ought to make use of our ears, and not our eyes.

WELLINS CALCOTT

Thoughts Moral and Divine

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The women are, of course, the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world and, if we are to believe the Book of Genesis, the very oldest.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Anthills of the Savannah

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A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

letter to "Scottie", November 18, 1938

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald