MEN - MEN v. WOMEN


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	MEN MEN & WOMEN --- MEN v. WOMEN . . . MEN see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links Most men are bad. --Bias (c. 6th cent. B.C.) Greek politician of Priene; considered one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Quoted in Nathaniel Wanley _The Wonders of the Little World_, p. 251 [1806 ed.]. No man is ever old enough to know better. --attributed to Holbrook Jackson (1874—1948) British journalist, writer, and publisher. Men are the greatest, and noblest, and wisest, and best Beings in the whole vast eternal Universe. Any man will tell you that. --Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927) English novelist and playwright. _The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; A Book for an Idle Holiday_ [1892] "On Cats and Dogs" Men are so honest, So thoroughly square; Eternally noble, Historically fair. --Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986) American playwright and lyricist. "A Hymn To Him", song from the 1956 musical "My Fair Lady". - A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _A Little Book in C Major_, ch. 3 [1916] Complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _In Defense of Women_ [1918] Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later, for another thing, they die sooner. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _A Mencken Chrestomathy_ [1949] - There are three classes of men — lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, lovers of gain. --Plato (427?—347 B.C.) Greek philosopher. _The Republic_ [c. 380 B.C.] Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _Much Ado About Nothing_, II, iii [1598-99] I know this — a man got to do what he got to do. --John Steinbeck (1902—1968) American novelist. _The Grapes of Wrath_, ch. 18 [1939] Every man has an Achilles' Heel, located not on his foot but in his crotch. --Barbara G. Walker (b. 1930) American author and feminist. _The Skeptical Feminist: Discovering the Virgin, Mother, and Crone_ [1987] - [Tira, played by Mae West, speaking:] It's not the men in my life that counts — it's the life in my men. --Mae West (1893—1980) American stage and film actress. "I'm No Angel" [1933 film] Screenplay by Mae West. [Ruby Carter (Mae West) speaking:] A man in the house is worth two in the street. --Mae West (1893—1980) American stage and film actress. "Belle of the Nineties" [1934 film] Screenplay by Mae West. - MEN & WOMEN . . see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for related links see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I would desire you remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. --Abigail Adams (1744—1818) American first lady [1797—1801], the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. Letter to John Adams [31 March 1776]. I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman. --John Adams (1735—1826) First VP and second President of the United States. Letter to his wife, Abigail Adams [13 February 1779]. Debate is masculine; conversation feminine. --attributed to [Amos] Bronson Alcott (1799—1888) American philosopher, teacher, and reformer; father of Louisa May Alcott. When women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice until they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do; then they act upon it, and if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it; if it fails, they generously give her the whole. --Louisa May Alcott (1832—1888) American novelist; daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott. _Little Women_, pt. II [1868] In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued. --Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945) Burmese political leader. Videotape speech at NGO Forum on women, China [September 1995]. If you are flattering a woman, it pays to be a little more subtle. You don't have to bother with men, they believe any compliment automatically. --Alan Ayckbourn (b. 1939) English dramatist. _Round and Round the Garden_ [1975] - A woman's greatest charm consists in a constant appeal to man's generosity, in a graceful declaration of weakness whereby she inflates his pride and awakens the noblest sentiments in his breast. --Honoré de Balzac (1799—1850) French journalist and writer. _La Recherche de L'absolu_ (The Quest of the Absolute) [1834] When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even for our virtues. --Honoré de Balzac (1799—1850) French journalist and writer. Attributed in J. De Finod (ed.) _A Thousand Flashes of French Wit ..._, p. 179 [1880]. - Except for the American woman, nothing interests the eye of the American man more than an automobile, or seems so important to him as an object of aesthetic appreciation. --attributed to Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (1902—1981) American art historian. Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful. --Sir Max Beerbohm (1872—1956) English satirist and caricaturist. _Zuleika Dobson_ [1911] You are not permitted to kill a woman who has wronged you, but nothing forbids you to reflect that she is growing older every minute. You are avenged 1440 times a day. --Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914) American newspaperman, wit, and satirist. "Epigrams" in _The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce_ [Neale Pub. Co., NY & Wash., 1911]. Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, 'Tis woman's whole existence. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824) English Romantic poet and satirist. "Don Juan", canto I, st. 194 [1818] Contrary to general opinion, women are not so sentimental as men, but are much more hardheaded. --Taylor Caldwell [Janet Taylor Caldwell] (1900—1985) American novelist born in England; she also wrote under the pseudonym of Max Reiner. Quoted in "Ladies' Home Journal" [1947]. Faint heart never won fair lady. --William Camden (1551—1623) English antiquary and historian. _Remains Concerning Britain_ [1605] Do you know why God withheld the sense of humor from women? That we may love you instead of laughing at you. --Mrs. Patrick Campbell [Beatrice Stella Tanner] (1865—1940) British stage actress. Quoted in Margot Peters _Mrs. Pat : The Life of Mrs. Patrick Campbell_ [1984]. When I started, at least women dressed to please men. Now, they dress to astonish one another. --Coco Chanel (1883—1971) French fashion designer. Quoted in "Newsweek" [1969]. Women deprived of the company of men pine, men deprived of the company of women become stupid. --Anton Chekhov (1860—1904) Russian dramatist and short-story writer. _Notebooks_ [1921] When a man of forty falls in love with a girl of twenty, it isn't her youth he is seeking but his own. --Lenore Coffee (1897—1984) American screenwriter. _Storyline; Recollections of a Hollywood Screenwriter_ [1973] A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives. --Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741—1803) French soldier and writer. _Les Liaisons dangereuses_ [1782] In the sex-war, thoughtlessness is the weapon of the male, vindictiveness of the female. --Cyril Connolly (1903—1974) English writer. _The Unquiet Grave_ [1944] The man's desire is for the woman; but the women's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834) English poet, critic, and philosopher. _Table Talk_ [1835] "23 July 1827" There is more difference within the sexes than between them. --Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884—1969) English novelist. _Mother and Son_, ch. 10 [1955] According to a new survey, women say they feel more comfortable undressing in front of men than they do in front of other women. They say that women are too judgemental, whereas, of course, men are just grateful. --attributed to Robert De Niro, Jr. (b. 1943) American actor. Women suffer more from disappointment than men, because they have more of faith and are naturally more credulous. --Marguerite de Valois (1553—1615) Queen of France and Navarre. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 108 [1886]. Women are far more impulsive than men; this is because they are more influenced by the heart than the head. --Madame Dorothée Deluzy (1747—1830) French actress. Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts About Women_, p. 216 [1882]. Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. --Marlene Dietrich [Marie Magdalene Von Losch] (1901—1992) German-born film actress. Between 1943—1946 she made more than 500 appearances before Allied troops. _Marlene Dietrich's ABC_ [1962] Gentlemen; when you come down to common-place small-talk with an intelligent lady, one of two things is the consequence; she either recognizes the condescension and despises you, or else she accepts it as the highest intellectual effort of which you are capable, and rates you accordingly. --Mrs E.B. Duffey, in _The Ladies' and Gentlemen's Etiquette_ [1877] Men's minds are raised to the level of the women with whom they associate. --Alexandre Dumas (1802—1870) French novelist and dramatist. _My Memoirs_, vol. 3 [6 vols., 1908 ed.] You see an awful lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy. --attributed to both Clint Eastwood (b. 1930), American film actor and director, & Erica Jong (b. 1942), American novelist. "Charm" — which means the power to effect work without employing brute force — is indispensable to women. Charm is a woman's strength just as strength is a man's charm. --Havelock Ellis (1859—1939) English essayist and psychologist. _The Task of Social Hygiene_, p. 81 [1912]. Man may content himself with the applause of the world and the homage paid to his intellect; but woman's heart has holier idols. --Augusta Jane Evans (1835—1909) American novelist. _Beulah_ [1860] Never try to impress a woman! Because if you do she'll expect you to keep up to the standard for the rest of your life. And the pace, my friends, is devastating. --W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] (1880—1946) American vaudeville star and film actor. _Fields for President_ [1939] If thou wouldest please the Ladies, thou must endeavour to make them pleased with themselves. --Thomas Fuller (1654—1734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Introductio ad Prudentiam_ [1731] You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived, I'm sure I would have played his mother. That's the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older. --Lillian Gish (1896—1993) American stage and movie actress. Quoted in Abby Adams _An Uncommon Scold_ [1989]. When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? --Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. _The Vicar of Wakefield_, ch. 29 [1766 novel, completed 1762] Women still remember the first kiss after men have forgotten the last. --Rémy de Gourmont (1858—1915) French novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher. Attributed in Connie Robertson _The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 154 [1998]. - Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. --John Gray (b. 1951) American author. Title of book [1992] When a woman keeps score, no matter how big or small a gift of love is, it scores one point; each gift has equal value. ... A man, however, thinks he scores one point for a small gift and thirty points for a big gift. --John Gray (b. 1951) American author. _Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus_ [1992] - - Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, "equality" is a disaster. --Robert Heinlein (1907—1988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] Premenstrual Syndrome: Just before their periods women behave the way men do all the time. --Robert Heinlein (1907—1988) American science-fiction writer. _The Cat Who Walks Through Walls_, ch. 15 [1985] Women and cats do what they do; there is nothing a man can do about it. --Robert Heinlein (1907—1988) American science-fiction writer. _The Cat Who Walks Through Walls_, ch. 29 [1985] - She plucked from my lapel the invisible strand of lint (the universal act of woman to proclaim ownership). --O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862—1910) American short-story writer. _Strictly Business_ "A Rumble in Aphasia" [1910] Every woman should have four pets in her life ... a mink in her closet, a jaguar in her garage, a tiger in her bed, and a jackass who pays for everything. --attributed to Paris Hilton (b. 1981) American socialite. A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In John Hawkins (ed.) _The Works of Samuel Johnson_ [1787] "Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions, etc." - The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool! --Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936) English writer and poet. _Plain Tales from the Hills_ "Three and - An Extra" [1888] Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walked down a street. --Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936) English writer and poet. _Traffics and Discoveries_ [1904], "Mrs. Bathurst" The female of the species is more deadly than the male. --Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936) English writer and poet. "The Female of the Species " [1911] - Men are the cause of women not loving one another. --attributed to Jean de La Bruyère (1645—1696) French essayist and moralist. Attributed in J. K. Hoyt (ed.) _The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 774 [1896]. A man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives. --Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741—1803) French soldier and writer. Les Liaisons dangereuses [1782] Enthusiasm springs from the imagination, and self-sacrifice from the heart. Women are, therefore, more naturally heroic than men. --Alphonse de Lamartine (1790—1869) French poet, novelist, and statesman. Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts about Women_, p. 250 [1882]. Perhaps you have to be born an Englishwoman to realize how much attention American men shower on women and how tremendously considerate all the nice ones among them are of a woman's wishes. --Gertrude Lawrence (1898—1952) English stage actress. _A Star Danced_ [1945] Women who insist upon having the same options as men would do well to consider the option of being the strong, silent type. --Fran Lebowitz (b. 1946) American humorist. _Metropolitan Life_ [1978] Why can't a woman be more like a man? Men are so honest, so thoroughly square; Eternally noble, historically fair. --Alan Jay Lerner (1918—1986) American playwright and lyricist. "A Hymn To Him", song from the 1956 musical "My Fair Lady". Him that I love, I wish to be Free — Even from me. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906—2001) American writer and wife of Charles Lindbergh. "Even—" [1956] I'm furious about the women's liberationists. They keep getting up on soap boxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket. --attributed to Anita Loos (1893—1981) American novelist and Hollywood screenwriter. A man is only as old as the woman he feels. --Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977) American film comedian. Quoted in Laurence J. Peter _Peter's Quotations_ [1977]. I think men talk to women so that they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so that they can talk to them. --Jay McInerney (b. 1955) American writer. "Brightness Falls" [1992] Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the right to use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely vulgar ones, in public as well as private. But it is men, far more than women, who have been liberated by this change. For now that women use these terms, men no longer need to watch their own language in the presence of women. But is this a gain for women? --Margaret Mead (1901—1978) American anthropologist. Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [1987]. - A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _A Little Book in C Major_, ch. 3 [1916] Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _In Defense of Women_ [1918] & note: Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for someone to complain to. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _The New York Evening Mail_ [15-16 Nov. 1917] A man loses his sense of direction after four drinks; a woman loses hers after four kisses. --attributed to H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. - The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes — the legal subordination of one sex to the other — is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and ... it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. --John Stuart Mill (1806—1873) English philosopher and social reformer. _The Subjection of Women_, ch. I [1869] I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war. --Robert Mueller (fl. 1957) American musician. Quoted in "Look" (mag.) [5 March 1957]. Women, like men, may be persuaded to confess their faults; but their follies, never. --Alfred de Musset (1810—1857) French poet, dramatist, and author. In Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts about Women_ p. 375 [1882]. I believe a little incompatibility is the spice of life, particularly if he has income and she is pattable. --Ogden Nash (1902—1971) American writer of humorous poetry. "I Do, I Will, I Have" l. 12 [1949] A study in the Washington Post says that women have better verbal skills than men. I just want to say to the authors of that study: Duh. --Conan O'Brien (b. 1963) American TV personality. Quoted in Lee T. Silber _Career Management for the Creative Person_ [1999]. Women hope that the dead love may revive; but men know that of all dead things none are so past recall as a dead passion. --Ouida [Maria Louise de la Ramée] (1839—1908) English novelist. _Ariadne_ [1877] Teenage boys, goaded by their surging hormones [...] run in packs like the primal horde. They have only a brief season of exhilarating liberty between control by their mothers and control by their wives. --Camille Paglia (b. 1947) American writer and social critic. "Homosexuality at the Fin de Siècle" _Esquire_ [October 1991] Woman wants monogamy; Man delights in novelty. Love is woman's moon and sun; Man has other forms of fun. . . . With this the gist and sum of it, What earthly good can come of it? --Dorothy Parker (1893—1967) American critic and humorist. "General Review of the Sex Situation" l. I [1926] - Men are the managers of the affairs of women. --Qur'an Sura 4 Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. --Qur'an Sura 4 - A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one. --Marjorie Rawlings (1896—1953) American novelist. _The Yearling_, ch. 12 [1938] A man who flatters a woman hopes either to find her a fool or to make her one. --Samuel Richardson (1689—1761) English novelist. _A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments..._ [1755] Women's reason is practical and makes them very skillful at finding means for getting at a known end, but not at finding that end itself. The social relationship of the sexes is an admirable thing. This partnership produces a moral person of which the woman is the eye and the man is the arm, but they have such a dependence upon one another that the woman learns from the man what must be seen and the man learns from the woman what must be done. If woman could ascend to general principles as well as a man can, and if a man had as good a mind for detail as woman does, they would always be independent of one another, they would live in eternal discord, and their partnership could not exist. But in the harmony which reigns between them, everything tends to a common end; they do not know who contributes more. Each follows the prompting of the other; each obeys, and both are masters. --Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) French philosopher and novelist. _Emile_ Bk. V [1762] - It takes one woman twenty years to make a man of her son — and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him. --Helen Rowland (1875—1950) American writer. _A Guide to Men_, prelude [1922] The woman who appeals to a man's vanity may stimulate him; the woman who appeals to his heart may attract him; but it's the woman who appeals to his imagination who gets him. --attributed to Helen Rowland (1875—1950) American writer. Quoted in Elaine Partnow _The Quotable Woman, 1800-1975_ [1978]. - - Win her with gifts, if she respect not words; Dumb jewels often in their silent kind, More than quick words, do move a woman's mind. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, III, i [1590—1591] Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more! Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _Much Ado About Nothing_, II, iii [1598—1599] - Can man be free if woman be a slave? --Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792—1822) English poet. _The Revolt of Islam_, 2. 43 [1817] - Behind every great man is a great woman. --Philip Slaughter _Christianity the Key to the Character and Career of Washington_ [1886] & see: Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law. --Hubert H. Humphrey (1911—1978) 38th vice-president of the United States [1965-69] and liberal senator [1949-65] & [1971-78]. [In a 1964 speech.] & see: Behind every man who achieves success Stand a mother, a wife, and the IRS. --Ethel Jacobson, quoted in "Reader's Digest" [April 1973]. & see: We in the industry know that behind every successful screenwriter stands a woman. And behind her stands his wife. --attributed to Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977) American film comedian. - - Woman once made equal to man becomes his superior. --Socrates (470?—399 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts About Women_, p. 49 [1882]. Trust not a woman when she weeps, for it is her nature to weep when she wants her will. --Socrates (470?—399 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts About Women_, p. 179 [1882]. - Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is only an episode in man's. --Madame de Staël [Anna-Louise-Germaine Necker] (1766—1817) French writer. _De l'Influence des Passions_, preface [1796] - Men should think twice before making widowhood women's only path to power. --attributed to Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) American feminist, jounalist, and founder of "Ms." magazine. Women are not going to be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. --attributed to Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) American feminist, jounalist, and founder of "Ms." magazine. - Men come of age at sixty, women at fifteen. --James Stephens (1882—1950) Irish poet and storyteller. In "Observer" [10 October 1944]. No man with any sense assumes that a woman's words mean to her exactly what they mean to him. --Rex Stout (1886—1975) American author who created the fictional detective Nero Wolfe. _The Mother Hunt_ [1963] In men, desire begets love; and in women, love begets desire. --Jonathan Swift (1667—1745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. _Journal to Stella_ (entry for 30 October 1712) [1768] - When I say that I know women, I mean that I know that I don't know them. Every single woman I ever knew is a puzzle to me, as I have no doubt she is to herself. --William Makepeace Thackeray (1811—1863) English novelist. _Mr. Brown's Letters_ (orig. pub. in "Punch" 1849) 'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel. --William Makepeace Thackeray (1811—1863) English novelist. _The History of Henry Esmond_, bk I, ch. 7 [1852] - The man that lays his hand on woman, Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch Whom 'twere gross flattery to name a coward. --John Tobin (1770—1804) English dramatist. _The Honey Moon_, II, i [1805] If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends. --Orson Welles (1915—1985) American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer. In a conversation with David Frost as quoted in Joseph McBride _Orson Welles: Actor and Director_ [1977]. - [Lady Lou (Mae West) speaking:] When women go wrong, men go right after them. --Mae West (1893—1980) American stage and film actress. "She Done Him Wrong" [1933 film] Screenplay by Harvey F. Thew & John Bright from the play "Diamond Lil" by Mae West. Men like women with a past because they hope history will repeat itself. --Mae West (1893—1980) American stage and film actress. Attributed in Maurice Leonard _Mae West: Empress of Sex_ [1992]. I only like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign. --attributed to Mae West (1892—1980) American stage and film actress. - The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots. --Dame Rebecca West [Cecily Isabel Fairfiield] (1892—1983) British-Irish journalist, novelist, and critic. _Black Lamb and Grey Falcon_ [1941], as quoted in "Harpers" [1945]. The dream of the American male is for a female who has an essential languor which is not laziness, who is unaccompanied except by himself, and who does not let him down. He desires a beautiful, but comprehensible, creature who does not destroy a perfect situation by forming a complete sentence. --E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (1899—1985) American essayist and literary stylist. "Notes of our Times" in _The Second Tree from the Corner_ [1954]. The true male never yet walked Who liked to listen when his mate talked. --Anna Wickham [Edith Alice Mary Harper] (1884—1947) British poet. "The Affinity", l. 14 in _The Contemplative Quarry_ [1915]. - The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life. --Oscar Wilde (1854—1900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _The Picture of Dorian Gray_, ch. 8 [1891] We [women] have a much better time than they [men] have. There are far more things forbidden to us than are forbidden to them. --Oscar Wilde (1854—1900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _A Woman of No Importance_, act 1 [1893] Men always want to be a woman's first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man's last romance. --Oscar Wilde (1854—1900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _A Woman of No Importance_, act 2 [1893] - Studies in which men and women are asked to rank their pleasures in order of enjoyment show repeatedly that whereas sex is the favourite for most men, many women prefer knitting, gardening and watching television. --Dr. Glenn Wilson (b. 1942) New Zealand-born psychologist. _The Great Sex Divide_ [1989] Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions, which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, they are insultingly supporting their own superiority. --Mary Wollstonecraft (1759—1797) English feminist. _A Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, ch. 4 [1792] The condition of women affords in all countries the best criterion by which to judge the character of men. --Frances Wright [Fanny Wright] (1795—1852) Scottish-born American social reformer. _Views of Society and Manners in America_ [1821] - The key to a woman's heart is [to give her] an unexpected gift at an unexpected time. --William Forrester (Sean Connery) in the film _Finding Forrester_ [2000]. ----- ogle (verb) ['o-gêl] To stare at in an obvious fashion with eyes wide open, especially out of salacious interest. philogynist (noun) A person who likes or admires women. MEN v. WOMEN . . see: "DIVORCE" see: "FEMINISM" see: "MISANTHROPY" see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links It has been said in praise of some men, that they could talk whole hours together upon anything; but it must be owned to the honor of the other sex, that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman branch out into a long extempore dissertation upon the edging of a petticoat, and chide her servant for breaking a china cup. --Joseph Addison (1672—1719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. "The Spectator" [13 December 1711] I trust only one thing in a woman: that she will not come to life again after she is dead. In all other things I distrust her. --attributed to Antiphanes (fl. early 4th cent. B.C.) Greek comic poet. These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: can't live with them, or without them! --Aristophanes (c. 450—c. 388 BC) Greek comic dramatist. _Lysistrata_, l. 1038 [411 B.C.] I married beneath me. All woman do. --Lady Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor (1879—1964) American-born, first woman to take a seat in the British House of Commons. Speech in Oldham, England [1951]. Women ought to be quiet. When people are talking, they ought to retire to the kitchen. --W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973) English-born poet and man of letters. _Table Talk_ [1947] A wife told her husband, 'Be an angel and let me drive,' He did and he is. --Milton Berle (Milton Berlinger) (1908—2002) American comedian. _Milton Berle's Private Joke File_ [1996] Why is it that The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations bulges with quotations by men ... when women (as men are the first to point out) do all the talking? --Peg Bracken (1918—2007) American humorist. Quoted in Michelle Lovric _Women's Wicked Wit: From Jane Austen to Rosanne Barr_ [2001]. There will always be a battle between the sexes because men and women want different things. Men want women and women want men. --George Burns [Nathan Birnbaum] (1896—1996) American comedian. Quoted in "Forbes" [1991]. They ought to mind home — and be well fed and clothed — but not mixed in society. Well educated, too, in religion — but to read neither poetry or politics — nothing but books of piety and cookery. Music — drawing — dancing — also a little gardening and plowing now and then. I have seen them mending the roads in Epirus with good success. Why not, as well hay-making and milking? --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824) English Romantic poet and satirist. In Arthur Schopenhauer "Studies in Pessimism: On Women" in _Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_, tr. T. Bailey Saunders [1889]. The only position for women in SNCC is prone. --Stokely Carmichael (1941—1998) American Black Power leader. Response to a question about the position of women at a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committeeconference [November 1964] - ODTQ. Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs. --Noël Coward (1899—1973) English playwright, actor, and composer. _Private Lives_, 3 [1930] - A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. --Irina Dunn (b. 1948) Australian educator and journalist. Graffito scribbled on two bathroom doors [1970]. & see: A man without a women is like a neck without a pain. --anon. - A clever woman has millions of born foes,— all stupid men. --Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830—1916) Austrian writer. _Aphorisms by Marie, Freifrau Von Ebner-Eschenbach_ tr. by Mrs. Annis Lee Wister [1883] Mrs. Browning's Death is rather a relief to me, I must say: no more Aurora Leighs, thank God! A woman of real genius, I know; but what is the upshot of it all? She and her Sex had better mind the Kitchen and their Children, and perhaps the Poor: except in such things as little Novels, they only devote themselves to what Men do much better, leaving that which Men do worse or not at all. --Edward Fitzgerald (1809—1883) English scholar and poet. Letter to W.H. Thompson [15 July 1861]. You can usually scare a certain amount of brains into a woman but usually you can't make them stick. --F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896—1940) American novelist. "The Note-Books" in _The Cracked Up_ (ed.) Edmund Wilson [1945]. Whatever they may be in public life, whatever their relations with men, in their relations with women, all men are rapists, and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes. --Marilyn French (b. 1929) American writer. _The Women's Room_ [1977] The comfortable estate of widowhood is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits. --John Gay (1685—1732) English poet and dramatist. _The Beggar's Opera _, I, x [1728] In all the woes that curse our race There is a lady in the case. --W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911) English writer of comic and satirical verse. "Fallen Fairies" [1866] [On women in the military:] Women are hard enough to handle now without giving them a gun! --Barry Goldwater (1909—1998) American conservative politician. [1980 comment] Marriage is a custom brought about by women who then proceed to live off men and destroy them, completely enveloping the man in a destructive cocoon or eating him away like a poisonous fungus on a tree. --Richard Harris (1930—2002) Irish actor, singer, and songwriter. Quoted in "New Woman" (mag.) [1983]. All women, as authors, are feeble and tiresome. I wish they were forbidden to write, on pain of having their faces deeply scarified with an oyster shell. --Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864) American novelist and short-story writer. Letter to his publisher [1852]. Her world is her husband, her family, her children and her home. We do not find it right when a woman presses into the world of the man. --Adolf Hitler (1889—1945) German dictator. Quoted in Lucy Komisar _The New Feminism_, ch. 10 [1971]. Women in State affairs are like Monkeys in Glass shops. --attributed to James Howell (1593—1666) British writer. God became a man, granted. The devil became a woman. --Victor Hugo (1802—1885) French poet, dramatist, and novelist. _Ruy Blas_, II, v [1838] - A woman's preaching is like a dog walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] "31 July 1763." [Of Mrs. Boswell:] She was so glad to see me go, that I have almost a mind to come again, that she may again have the same pleasure. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Letter to Boswell [5 March 1774]. I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Told by William Seward to Isaac Reed for publication in _The European Magazine_ [pub. 1782—1826]. - You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy. --attributed to Erica Jong (b. 1942) American novelist. A man's foremost interest should be his work. But for a woman — man is her work and her business. Yes, I know it sounds like a convenient philosophy of the selfish male when I say that. But marriage means a home and home is like a nest — not enough rooms for both birds at once. One sits inside, the other perches on the edge and looks about and attends to all outside business. --Carl Gustav Jung (1875—1961) Swiss psychologist. "Men, Women, and God" [25-29 April 1955] _C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters_ ed. William McGuire and R.F.C. Hull [1977] There is a large number of women whose brains are closer in size to the gorillas than to the most developed male brains. This inferiority is so obvious that no one can contest it for a moment; only its degree is worth discussion. All psychologists who have studied the intelligence of women ... recognize today that they represent the most inferior forms of human evolution, and that they are closer to children and savages than to an adult, civilized man. --Gustave Le Bon (1841—1931) French social psychologist best known for his study of the psychological characteristics of crowds. _Revue d'Anthropologie_ [1879] Prince of Wales: I've spent enough on you to buy a battleship. Lillie Langtry: And you've spent enough in me to float one. -- In _Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.]. Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow breasts, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children. --Martin Luther (1483—1546) German Protestant theologian. _Table Talk_ #725 [1566] A man who teaches women letters feeds more poison to a frightful asp. --Menander (343?—291 B.C.) Greek dramatist. _Fragments_ Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later, for another thing, they die sooner. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. _A Mencken Chrestomathy_ [1949] - Men are like a fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with. --attributed to Kathleen Mifsud & see: Women are like fine wine. They all start out fresh, fruity and intoxicating to the mind and then turn full-bodied with age until they go all sour and vinegary and give you a headache. --anon. - - Don't accept rides from strange men, and remember that all men are strange as hell. --Robin Morgan (b. 1941) American feminist activist. "Letter to a Sister Underground" in _Sisterhood is Powerful_ [1970]. I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them. --Robin Morgan (b. 1941) American feminist activist. _Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist_ [1977] - Equality for women? That is madness. Women are our property; we are not theirs. They give us children ... and belong to us as the fruit-bearing tree belongs to the gardener. --Napoleon I (1769—1821) Emperor of France [1804—1815]. _In the Words of Napoleon_ p. 104, tr. Daniel Savage Gray [1977]. Men are nicotine-soaked, beer-besmirched, whisky-greased, red-eyed devils. --Carry Nation (Carry Amelia Nation, nèe Moore) [1846—1911] American temperance advocate. Attributed in Abby Adams _An Uncommon Scold_ [1989]. Women want to be a lot of things traditionally considered masculine: Doctors, rock stars, body builders, presidents of the U.S. But there are plenty of masculine things women have, so far, shown no desire to be: Pipe smokers, wise old drunks, quiet. --P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American political satirist. _Modern Manners_ [1983] Women are one and all a set of vultures. --Gaius Petronius Arbiter (?—AD 66) Roman writer and senator. _Satyricon_, 1st century AD All the pursuits of men are the pursuits of women also, but in all of them a woman is inferior to a man. --Plato (427?—347 B.C.) Greek philosopher. _The Republic_, 5, 455, tr. Benjamin Jowett [1894] There is a good principle which created order, light, and man, and an evil principle which created chaos, darkness, and woman. --attributed to Pythagoras (582—486 B.C.) Ionian mathematician and philosopher. It is said that friendship between women is only a suspension of hostilities. --Antoine de Rivarol (1753—1801) French man of letters. Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts about Women_ p. 294 [1882]. - The man should be strong and active; the woman should be weak and passive; the one must have both the power and the will; it is enough that the other should offer little resistance. --Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) French philosopher and novelist. _Emile; or, Treatise on Education_ [1762] Men speak from knowledge, women from imagination. --Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) French philosopher and novelist. Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts about Women_, p. 299 [1882]. - Learned women are ridiculed because they put to shame unlearned men. --George Sand [pseudonym of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin] (1804—1876) French author. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Notable Thoughts About Women_, p. 8 [1882]. - Woman is as hard to know as a melon. --Spanish proverb From the sea, much salt; from women, much evil. --Spanish proverb - Biologically and tempermentally, I believe women were made to be concerned first and foremost with child care, husband care and home care. --Benjamin Spock (1903—1998) American pediatrician. Quoted in Barbara Sinclair Deckard _The Women's Movement: Political, Socioeconomic, and Psychological Issues_ [1979]. There is, of course, no reason for the existence of the male sex except that sometimes one needs help with moving the piano. --Dame Rebecca West [Cecily Isabel Fairfiield] (1892—1983) British-Irish journalist, novelist, and critic. In "Sunday Telegraph" [28 June 1970]. Women never reason, or if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises, or wrong inferences from correct premises. --Richard Whately (1787—1863) English philosopher and theologian. Attributed in Littell's Living Age [12 November 1864]. Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. --Charlotte Whitton (1896—1975) Canadian writer and politician. "Canada Month" [June 1963] Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses, possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. --Virginia Woolf (1882—1941) English novelist. _A Room of One's Own_, ch. 2 [1929] - Women! You can't live with 'em. Pass the beernuts. --dialogue, "Cheers" (TV show) [George Wendt as Norm Peterson] - We men have many faults: Poor women have but two — There's nothing good they say, There's nothing good they do. --anon. "On Women's Faults" [1727] - THE GUINNESS BOOK OF FEMALE WORLD RECORDS Car Parking: The smallest kerbside space successfully reversed into by a woman was one of 19.36m (63ft 2ins), equivalent to three standard parking spaces, by Mrs. Elizabeth Simpkins, driving an unmodified Vauxhall Nova 'Swing' on 12th October 1993. She started the manoeuvre at 11:15am in Ropergate, Pontefract, and successfully parked within three feet of the pavement 8 hours 14 minutes later. There was slight damage to the bumpers and wings of her own and two adjoining cars, as well as a shop frontage and two lampposts. Incorrect Driving: The longest journey completed with the handbrake on was one of 504 km (313miles) from Stranraer to Holyhead by Dr. Julie Thorn (GB) at the wheel of a Saab 900 on the 2nd April 1987. Dr. Thorn smelled burning two miles into her journey at Aird but pressed on to Holyhead with smoke billowing from the rear wheels. This journey also holds the records for the longest completed journey with the choke fully out and the right indicator flashing. Shop Dithering: The longest time spent dithering in a shop was 12 days between 21st August and 2nd September 1995 by Mrs. Sandra Wilks (GB) in the Birmingham branch of Dorothy Perkins. Entering the shop on a Saturday morning, Mrs. Wilks could not choose between two near identical dresses which were both in the sale. After one hour, her husband, sitting on a chair by the changing room with his head in his hands, told her to buy both. Mrs. Wilks eventually bought one for 12.99, only to return the next day and exchange it for the other one. To date, she has yet to wear it. Mrs. Wilks also holds the record for window shopping longevity, when, starting September 12th 1995, she stood motionless gazing at a pair of shoes in Clinkard's window in Kidderminster for 3 weeks two days before eventually going home. Jumble Sale Massacre: The greatest number of old ladies to perish whilst fighting at a jumble sale is 98, at a Methodist Church Hall in Castleford, West Yorkshire on February 12th 1991. When the doors opened at 10:00 am, the initial scramble to get in cost 16 lives, a further 25 being killed in a crush at the first table. A seven-way skirmish then broke out over a pinafore dress costing 10p which escalated into a full scale melee resulting in another 18 lives being lost. A pitched battle over a headscarf then ensued and quickly spread throughout the hall, claiming 39 old women. The jumble sale raised £5.28 for local boy scouts. Talking about Nothing: Mrs. Mary Caterham (GB) and Mrs. Marjorie Steele (GB) sat in a kitchen in Blackburn, Lancaster and talked about nothing whatsoever for three and a half months from 1st May to 7th August 1978, pausing only for tea, cakes and toilet visits. Throughout the whole time, no information was exchanged and neither woman gained any new knowledge whatsoever. The outdoor record for talking about nothing is held by Mrs. Vera Etherington (GB) and her neighbour Mrs. Dolly Booth (GB) of Ipswich, who between 11th November 1983 and 12th January 1984 chuntered on over their fence in an unenlightening dialogue lasting almost 62 days until Mrs. Booth remembered she'd left the bath running. Gossiping: On February 18th 1992, Joyce Blatherwick, a close friend of Agnes Banbury popped round for a cup of tea and a chat, during the course of which she told Mrs. Banbury, in the strictest confidence, that she was having an affair with the butcher. After Mrs. Blatherwick left at 2:10pm, Mrs.Banbury immediately began to tell everyone, swearing them all to secrecy. By 2:30pm, she had told 128 people of the news. By 2:50pm it had risen to 372 and by 4:00pm that afternoon, 2774 knew of the affair, including the local Amateur dramatic Society, several knitting circles, a coach load of American tourists which she flagged down, and the butchers wife. When a tired Mrs. Banbury went to bed at 11:55pm that night, Mrs. Blatherwick's affair was common knowledge to a staggering 75,338 people, enough to fill Wembley Stadium. Group Toilet Visit: The record for the largest group of women to visit a toilet simultaneously is held by 147 workers at the Department of Social Security, Longbenton. At their annual Christmas celebration at a night club in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on October 12th 1994, Mrs. Beryl Crabtree got up to go to the toilet and was immediately followed by 146 other members of the party. Moving as a mass, the group entered the toilet at 9.52pm and, after waiting for everyone to finish, emerged 2 hrs 37 mins later. Film Confusion: The greatest length of time a woman has watched a film with her husband without asking a stupid plot-related question was achieved on the 28th October 1990, when Mrs. Ethel Brunswick sat down with her husband to watch 'The Ipcress File'. She watched in silence for a breath-taking 2 mins 40 secs before asking "Is he a goodie or a baddie, then, him in the glasses?" revealing a staggering level of ignorance. This broke her own record set in 1962 when she sat through 2 mins 38 secs of '633 Squadron' before asking, "Is this a war film, is it?" Single Breath Sentence: An Oxfordshire woman today became the first ever to break the thirty minute barrier for talking without drawing breath. Mrs. Mavis Sommers, 48, of Cowley, smashed the previous record of 23 minutes when she excitedly reported an argument she'd had in the butchers to her neighbour. She ranted on for a staggering 32 minutes and 12 seconds without pausing for air, before going blue and collapsing in a heap on the ground. She was taken to Radcliffe Infirmary in a wheelbarrow but was released later after check-ups. At the peak of her mammoth motormouth marathon, she achieved an unbelievable 680 words per minute, repeating the main points of the story an amazing 114 times whilst her neighbour, Mrs. Dolly Knowles, nodded and tutted. The last third of the sentence was delivered in a barely audible croak, the last two minutes being mouthed only, accompanied by vigorous gesticulations and indignant spasms. --author unknown end page \| MACARTHUR (DOUGLAS) - MALICE \| MAN - MARINES \| MARRIAGE \| MARTYRS - MAUGHAM (WILLIAM SOMERSET) \| McCARTHY - MEANNESS \| MEDIA (THE) \| MEDICINE - MEMORIAL DAY \| MEMORIES - MEMORY \| MEN - MEN v. WOMEN \| MENTAL ILLNESS - MILK \| MIND (THE) - MINDING OWN BUSINESS \| MINNESOTA - MISERY \| MISFORTUNE - MISSOURI \| MISTAKES \| MISTAKEN IDENTITY - MODESTY \| MONEY \| MONROE - MOON \| MORAL ASSASINATION - MORALITY \| MORNING - MOUNTAINS \| MOVIE DIALOGUE - MUSHROOMS \| MUSIC - MYTHOLOGY \| \| H \| I - J \| K - L \| M \| N - O \| P - Q \| \| Return Home \| The Credits \| The Cast \| Act 1 \| Act 2 \| Act 3 \| The Reviews \|