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841a4f8 There is a wholeness about a woman, of shape, and sound, and colour, and taste, and smell, a quietness that is her, that you will want to hold tightly to you, all, every little bit, without words, in peace, for jealousy for the things that escape the clumsiness of your arms. So you feel when you love. ...For her womaness is a blessing about her, and you are tender to put your hands upon her and kiss, not with lust, but with the joy of one returning to a lost one. women womaness Richard Llewellyn
48f7b0c The United States finds itself with forces of reaction. Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture? The enslavement of women? women music taliban jihad war-on-terror terrorism united-states islam islamism Christopher Hitchens
15dc7c4 Every woman is a mad ugly bad old witch somewhere in her heart. women witch Philippa Gregory
5a29f0c The baby should always be saved in preference to the mother. That is the advice of the Holy Church, you know that. I was only reminding women of their duty. There is no need to make everything so personal, Margaret. You make everything into your own tragedy. women religion personhood Philippa Gregory
73d987f A woman's income appeal is a bell-shaped curve: men do not want to date low-earning women, but once a woman starts earning too much, they seem to be scared off. money men women relationship freakonomics Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
d18f83c But it was just luck really if the girls survived. You're like a man firing a machine gun into a supermarket who happens not to become a murderer. murder women unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
7c821f1 Why do I need to have reasons? When someone decides to have a baby, people don't go around asking what her reasons are. women Emily Giffin
b2c3757 At no moment in history has a bright young girl with plenty of food and a good constitution perished from too much learning. women Elizabeth Gilbert
55ed6dc The thing about women is that they got liberated too fast. They never learned to be straightforward about life because they had to sneak around for about a thousand years tricking men into doing things they wanted. So they manipulate you instead of telling you what they want, so you never know where the hell you are. And then they get mad at you and bitch. women-s-rights women complaints sneaky women-s-lib liberation women-s-liberation tricks Jennifer Crusie
a17e208 "Still, my argument was that if she was going to work for the next 30 years, what difference does "going back" 4 years really make? If the other path made her happier and offered her a chance to learn new skills, that meant she was actually moving forward." women lean-in Sheryl Sandberg
7e2d518 Be a wife of whom he can make no complaint, Margaret. That is the best advice I can give to you. You will be his wife; that is to be his servant, his possession. He will be your master. You had better please him. marriage women personhood ownership Philippa Gregory
ad59a7a Two years hence you will be as calm as I am now, - and far, far happier, I trust, for you are a man and free to act as you please men women future happiness Anne Brontë
659c458 A parcel--taken from one place to another, handed from one owner to another, unwrapped and bundled up at will--is all that I am. A vessel, for the bearing of sons, for one nobleman or another: it hardly matters who. women personhood Philippa Gregory
1c9f5d0 "The world is changing, I said. It is no longer a world just for boys and men. Our women are respected here, said the father. We would never let them tramp the world as American women do. There is always someone to look after the Olinka woman. A father. An uncle. A brother or nephew. Do not be offended, Sister Nettie, but our people pity women such as you who are cast out, we know not from where, into a world unknown to you, where you must struggle all alone, for yourself. So I am an object of pity and contempt, I thought, to men and women alike. Furthermore, said Tashi's father, we are not simpletons. We understand that there are places in the world where women live differently from the way our women do, but we do not approve of this different way for our children. But life is changing, even in Olinka, I said. We are here. He spat on the ground. What are you? Three grownups and two children. In the rainy season some of you will probably die. You people do not last long in our climate. If you do not die, you will be weakened by illness. Oh, yes. We have seen it all before. You Christians come here, try hard to change us, get sick and go back to England, or wherever you come from. Only the trader on the coast remains, and even he is not the same white man, year in and year out. We know because we send him women. Tashi is very intelligent, I said. She could be a teacher. A nurse. She could help the people in the village. There is no place here for a woman to do those things, he said. Then we should leave, I said. Sister Corrine and I. No, no, he said. Teach only the boys? I asked. Yes, he said, as if my question was agreement. There is a way that the men speak to women that reminds me too much of Pa. They listen just long enough to issue instructions. They don't even look at women when women are speaking. They look at the ground and bend their heads toward the ground. The women also do not "look in a man's face" as they say. To "look in a man's face" is a brazen thing to do. They look instead at his feet or his knees." women-s-rights women gender-inequality gender-stereotypes men-and-women gender Alice Walker
b200d2b It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. women joseph conrad
3c16635 Every woman who chooses--joyfully, thoughtfully, calmly, of her own free will and desire--not to have a child does womankind a massive favor in the long term. We need more women who are allowed to prove their worth as people, rather than being assessed merely for their potential to create new people. After all, half of those new people we go on to create are also women--presumably themselves to be judged, in their futures, for not making new people. And so it will go on, and on... While motherhood is an incredible vocation, it has no more inherent worth than a childless woman simply being who she is, to the utmost of her capabilities. To think otherwise betrays a belief that being a thinking, creative, productive, and fulfilled woman is, somehow, not enough. That no action will ever be the equal of giving birth. women feminist self-worth Caitlin Moran
1bdc276 Women often find great roles in revolution, simply because the rules fall apart and everyone has agency, anyone can act. As they did in Egypt, where liberty leading the masses was an earnest young woman in a black hijab. women hijab liberty revolution gender Rebecca Solnit
4e891ff Their collective advice: don't settle. Keep looking. Find Mr. Right. That is what they all did. And by God, I think they believe it. Because nobody who marries at the ripe age of twenty-three can be settling. Naturally. That is a phenomenon that only happens to women in their thirties. women Emily Giffin
ee86838 Famously, Gloria Steinem once advised women that they should strive to become like the men they had always wanted to marry. What I've only recently realized is that I not only have to become my own husband, but I need to be my own father, too. women life Elizabeth Gilbert
1723b39 For this cause...for this privilege...you were born--to shine lights into the world for God. world women god shine elizabeth-george Elizabeth George
a929c67 Love may start out as a good feeling, but to love someone long-term is an act of the will. marriage men women faith relationship family god hope love feeling lady will Elizabeth George
febc086 I may add here that one of the secrets of my happy life is that i have never made the mistake of learning to drive a car. I have never lacked people, usually women, longing to drive me withersoever I wanted. Why keep bitches and bark yourself? women cars driving Iris Murdoch
4e21612 ...a row of tables manned by seated, serious women. Each woman looked like she could be someone's least-favourite aunt. women funny Adam Rex
3036f90 Bless all the women of this world who nurture our heritage while too many man rush off to kill for ideals that might now be deeply and personally held, but will often be viewed as repugnant by later generations. women heritage Stephen Jay Gould
c3eb705 It matters not at all that I do not want to marry, that I am afraid of the wedding, afraid of consummating the marriage, afraid of childbirth, afraid of everything about being a wife. Nobody even asks if I have lost my childhood sense of vocation, if I still want to be a nun. Nobody cares what I think at all. They treat me like an ordinary young woman, bred for wedding and bedding, and since they do not ask me what I think, nor observe what I feel, there is nothing that gives them pause at all. women personhood Philippa Gregory
a785607 Like almost all girls I don't know the date of my birth: my parents did not trouble to record the day and the time. I only know the year and the season, and I only know the season because my mother had a great desire for asparagus when she was carrying me and swears that she ate it too green and her bellyache brought on my birth. history women Philippa Gregory
665df0f [Patricia Highsmith] was a figure of contradictions: a lesbian who didn't particularly like women; a writer of the most insightful psychological novels who, at times, appeared bored by people; a misanthrope with a gentle, sweet nature. psychological writer nature people women writing gentle misanthrope contradictions lesbian novels insightful sweet like insight Andrew Wilson
7769f6b It is natural for our unamiable sex to dislike the creatures, for you ladies lavish so many caresses upon them. dogs men women dislike cats pets Anne Brontë
cec192b "He looked around and yawned. "I haven't been sleeping well. It's nice in here. But after a while the lushes will fill the place up and talk loud and laugh and the goddam women will start waving their hands and screwing up their faces and tinkling their goddam bracelets and making up with the packaged charm which will later on in the evening have a slight but unmistakable odour of sweat." "Take it easy," I said. "So they're human, they sweat, they get dirty, they have to go to the bathroom. What did you expect - golden butterflies hovering in a rosy mist?" women Raymond Chandler
6b11c26 So where does that leave me? I like hosting the show....It's become my identity. If that's gone, where am I? women discrimination job workplace aging Barbara Delinsky
47f8d3d Even when I worked in that world, I still wanted love so strong that the man would have no interest in another woman. Maybe you will always be incapable of giving that kind of love. You tell me I want too much. And maybe I do. But like you and your imagination, I can't help but be that way. men women love loyalty Amy Tan
e66ec11 All feminine claws, he said to himself, are sheathed in velvet; but they can hurt a good deal if they touch you on the sore places of the defects of your qualities--even merely with the velvet. women cruelty power Ford Madox Ford
9e4e895 I'm not jealous of my male colleagues often, but I am when it comes to how they can just shower, shave, put on a suit, and be ready to go. The few times I've gone out in public without makeup, it's made the news. So I sigh and keep getting back in that chair, and dream of a future in which women in the public eye don't need to wear makeup if they don't want to and no one cares either way. women politics Hillary Rodham Clinton
559619c "The whole truth?" Miss Bart laughed. "What is the truth? Where a woman is concerned, it's the story that's easiest to believe. In this case it's a great deal easier to believe Bertha Dorset's story than mine, because she has a big house and an opera box, and it's convenient to be on good terms with her" wealth women truth Edith Wharton
c48611d Rubens! All bosom and bum, big cumulus clouds of pink flesh, eh? You can feel the heart beating like a kettledrum in a ton of that stuff. Every woman a bed; throw yourself on them, sink from sight. women rubens sensuality Ray Bradbury
f6ce7bb For he did not, he would have said, care for women; he never felt at home or at ease with them; and that monstrous creature beginning to be talked about, the New Woman of the nineties, filled him with horror. He was a quiet, conventional person, and the world, viewed from the haven of Brookfield, seemed to him full of distasteful innovations; there was a fellow named Bernard Shaw who had the strangest and most reprehensible opinions; there was Ibsen, too, with his disturbing plays; and there was this new craze for bicycles which was being taken up by women equally with men. Chips did not hold with all this modern newness and freedom. He had a vague notion, if he ever formulated it, that nice women were weak, timid, and delicate, and that nice men treated them with a polite but rather distant chivalry. men women society James Hilton
0d85b22 The moment a woman was born determined so much of who she was allowed to become. women inequality J. Courtney Sullivan
de93f3e Under her high brows, she eyed him straight on and straight across. She had gone to girls' schools, he recalled later. Those girls looked straight at you. women Annie Dillard
f0d37ce I mean, a male chauvinist pig isn't born, he's made, and more and more of them are being made by women. women Chuck Palahniuk
9e2d3df Shevek saw that he had touched in these men an impersonal animosity that went very deep. Apparently they, like the tables on the ship, contained a woman, a suppressed, silenced, bestialized woman, a fury in a cage. He had no right to tease them. They knew no relation but possession. They were possessed. women patriarchy Ursula K. Le Guin
c5e4334 "Hideo," said my mother, in the terrifying way women have of passing without interval from one subject to another because they have them all present in their mind at once, "you haven't found any kind of relationship?" -- women mothers Ursula K. Le Guin
0dd75db Sairin bana siirinde okudugu Troya'nin dususu hikayesinde kralin kizi Cassandra olacaklari onceden goruyor ve Troyalilarin buyuk ati sehre sokmalarini onlemeye calisiyor, ama onu kimse dinlemiyordu: Uzerrindeki lanetti bu, hakikati gorecek, bunu soyleyecek, ama onu kimse duymayacakti. Erkeklerden ziyade kadinlarin uzerindeki bir lannetir bu. Erkekler hakikatin kendilerine ait olmasini, kendi kesifleri, kendi mulkleri olmasini ister. women mythology-fiction science-fiction Ursula K. Le Guin
90f00ca You are a devious woman, Blackthorn,' she said. 'I prefer the term strategic thinker. women leader Juliet Marillier
738c119 Legs was always proud even before FOXFIRE, that's the primary fact about Legs Sadovsky: pride. women-s-rights women feminist Joyce Carol Oates
e202d39 Teachers were not allowed to beat children as they did in the past, although, Mma Ramotswe reflected, there were some boys-and indeed some young men-who might have been greatly improved by moderate physical correction. The apprentices, for example: would it help if Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni resorted to physical chastisement-nothing severe, of course-but just an occasional kick in the seat of the pants while they were bending over to change a tyre or something like that? The thought made her smile. She would even offer to administer the kick herself, which she imagined might be oddly satisfying, as one of the apprentices, the one who still kept on about girls, had a largeish bottom which she thought would be quite comfortable to kick. How enjoyable it would be to creep up behind him and kick him when he was least expecting it, and then to say: Let that be a lesson! That was all one would have to say, but it would be a blow for women everywhere. bottom women humor blow kick Alexander McCall Smith
a0c1124 She had only a candle's light to see by, but candlelight never did badly by any woman. women humor John Fowles
276c4a7 "It is hardly lonely in a nunnery, son, with other women. And God is there." Morgause said, "I would rather dwell in a hermitage in the forest than in a house full of chattering ladies! If God is there, it must be hard for him to get a word in edgewise!" women humor nuns Marion Zimmer Bradley
1d0d322 I don't care how happily married you are or how deeply enmeshed you are with your children and family and career -- every woman needs a couple of chicks who'll break out the sangria just because you need to vent. relationships women friendship life girl-life Jen Lancaster
4600a59 We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces on the edges of print. women oppression Margaret Atwood
405971d They are boiling with the pressured energy of explosive forces confined in a small space, and with the fervor of all religious movements in their early, purist stages. It is not enough to give lip service and to believe in equal pay: there has to be a conversion, from the heart. Or so they imply. passion women fervor Margaret Atwood
dd1660d "A diamond may be forever, but terrorism, promiscuously funded, will be too. Let's make the connection clearly by tracing the path of the diamond. Diamonds start out in the earth, and eventually that earth is part of a country, like Sierra Leone, Angola, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. In those countries, desperate battles for control have been going on for decades, and the armies that fight the battles finance their ambitions with diamonds. Villagers are forced to mine the diamonds by ruthless rebels who maintain order through terror: by raping women and hacking off the limbs of the children, something, by the way, you never see in the De Beers ads. The rebels then smuggle the diamonds into neighboring dictatorships in exchange for guns and cash. There the diamonds are sold to the highest bidder--whether they be terrorists or "legitimate" dealers--and finally they're laundered in Europe, shipped to America, and end up in jewelry stores where they're purchased by men and given to women in exchange for oral sex. In the feminized world we live in, it's practically national policy that women are more evolved that men--but if that's so, how come they're still so impressed by shiny objects?" women humor war-on-terror Bill Maher
b05355d But females in even the most advanced Muslim countries are simply, by law, not the equal of men. feminism women Bill Maher
f94bae5 Later on, still looking, she had tried to get involved with the Women's Community Center. She liked what they stood for but secretly wished they would wear just a little lipstick and shave their legs. She had been the only one in the room in full makeup, wearing pantyhose and earrings. She had wanted to belong, but when the woman suggested that next week they bring a mirror so they could all study their vaginas, she never went back. women females feminists Fannie Flagg
c484a42 So now you are a woman. Do you have the least idea of what that means? It means that I am now fit to be wedded and bedded (...) and to bear children for the king. women-s-rights women queens patriarchy George R.R. Martin
fc6dcbe We need a temporary cessation in people having any opinions about any women, ever. I propose a, say, five-year moratorium on having opinions about women, in order to let one generation of girls get from one side of puberty to the other without growing up in a climate where women are constantly being scolded, chivvied, harassed, or subjected to thunderous opinion columns concluding that, yet again, some woman in the public eye has overreached herself and should wind her neck in. women opinion Caitlin Moran
89feb88 I was amazed at how strong women were when they were angry. women humor Robin Hobb
f0584cd The discovery of her life was that she herself didn't actually need money, apart from a little cash for those relationships with taxi drivers and officials of the Great Western Railway which can only be expressed financially. women Elizabeth Ironside
88c0605 I felt confused, and also inadequate; whatever he was asking or demanding, it was beyond me. this was the first time a man would expect more from me than i was capable of giving, but it wouldn't be the last. women male-domination male-supremacy Margaret Atwood
5b04979 It was a weakness, but he could not bear to disappoint women, even if it was ultimately for their own good. woman women could-not-bear for-good own-good disappoint weakness Larry McMurtry
e0b95de To him it was a sort of hyperspace-librarian, girl-geek thing that he found clever and fetching without attracting him in a way that would have been creepy. women girls Neal Stephenson
875a1ed lkdhb ynqlb fDyl@ fy HDr@ lns virtue women Naguib Mahfouz
b4f6bfd She reminded him that the weak will never enter the kingdom of love, which is a harsh and ungenerous kingdom,and that women give themselves only to men of resolute spirit, who provide them with the security they need in order to face life. women strength security weakness Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
d99afbf "I've never seen or touched anything." "Can you explain then how you had children?" "You're right. It's true I have four kids. Four! But still I have never seen the male organ. He came into the bedroom, he turned off the light, and then Bam! Bam! Bam! and voila I was pregnant! What's more, I was granted four girls. So I have never seen penises." sex men women intercourse penis iran patriarchy Marjane Satrapi
277379a Happiness is the inner poetry of women, just as fine clothes are the mask of beauty women happiness Honoré de Balzac
0e508ec [Peggy Mcintosh] explained that many people, but especially women, feel fraudulent when they are praised for their accomplishments. Instead of feeling worthy of recognition, they feel undeserving and guilty, as if a mistake has been made. Despite being high achievers, even experts in their fields, women can't seem to shake the sense that it is only a matter of time until they are found out for who they are -- impostors with limited skills or abilities women work glass-ceiling Sheryl Sandberg
3732a39 By the altar, which is made of massive slabs of stone untouched by tools since hewn from the quarry and set up in this vast edifice, a barefooted priest wearing a linen tunic waits for the Levite to hand over the turtledoves. He takes the first one, carries it to a comer of the altar, and with a single blow knocks the head from its body. [...] Joseph has nothing more to accomplish here, he must withdraw, collect his wife and child, and return home. Mary is pure once more, not in the strict sense of the word, because purity is something to which most human beings, and above all women, can scarcely hope to aspire. women José Saramago
2140d61 ... motherhood is a game you must enter with as much energy, willingness, and happiness as possible. feminism women Caitlin Moran
4245642 I would just as soon remain jamona than shed that many tears over a man. women tears women-and-men Esmeralda Santiago
61d0c30 Your hard-won triumphs can be wholly negated if you live in a climate where your victories are seen as threatening, incorrect, distasteful, or -- most crucially of all, for a teenage girl -- simply uncool. Few girls would choose to be right -- right, down into their clever, brilliant bones -- but lonely. individuality women individualism girls Caitlin Moran
a08c708 This is the ultimate chicken and the egg situation. The chicken: Women will tear down the external barriers once we achieve leadership roles... The egg: We need to eliminate the external barriers to get women into those roles in the first place. Both sides are right. women work glass-ceiling Sheryl Sandberg
41ce2e2 Just like in the workplace, women who are good workers are the best workers. women Bill Maher
d6f2c16 She was a Victorian girl; a girl of the days when men were hard and top-hatted and masculine and ruthless and girls were gentle and meek and did a great deal of sewing and looked after the poor and laid their tender napes beneath a husband's booted foot, and even if he brought home cabfuls of half-naked chorus girls and had them dance on the rich round mahogany dining-table (rosily reflecting great pearly hams and bums in its polished depths). Or, drunk to a frenzy, raped the kitchen-maid before the morning assembly of servants and children and her black silk-dressed self (gathered for prayers). Or forced her to stitch, on shirts, her fingers to rags to pay his gambling debts. Husbands were a force of nature or an act of God; like an earthquake or the dreaded consumption, to be borne with, to be meekly acquiesced to, to be impregnated by as frequently as Nature would allow. It took the mindless persistence, the dogged imbecility of the grey tides, to love a husband. women Angela Carter
cc07141 They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering Wes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel. women inspirational Betty Smith
4ef55fa Foras Road has a sordid reputation (...) Old crones sat in doorways, while their daughters were pushed out to earn money. It is intriguing that a society which is very covert with sexuality should be so straightforward about prostitution. india travel women prostitutes travel-writing Tahir Shah
3c1500c I conquered outer worlds just as he had. I expressed masculine strength and power just as he had. But it didn't bring me closer to him or to others like him because I had become one of the guys, and that's not what most men are looking for. He had never loved me for being a great guy. men women marianne-williamson Marianne Williamson
06c7bfc "I rang the bell and she opened the door, dried her hands, and said heartily: 'Hello, stranger. I was just saying to Cliff only tonight, it's about time you showed up around here.' I wanted to detach him from her, but first I had to sit through about ten minutes of her. She was my sister, but you don't tell women things like I wanted to tell him. I don't know why, but you don't. You tell them the things you have under control; the things that you're frightened of, you tell other men if you tell anyone. ("Nightmare")" men women fear men-and-women Cornell Woolrich
706f9f4 By leaving, we are not necessarily disobeying the men according to the Bible, because we, the women, do not know exactly what is in the Bible, being unable to read it. Furthermore, the only reason why we feel we need to submit to our husbands is because our husbands have told us that the Bible decrees it. feminism women Miriam Toews
c498a15 I remembered a truism that I had always known: no woman need let a man know the contents of her mind. women truisms women-s-minds Karen Essex
a36e7b8 it is a quote from Mihri Hatun, a lady poet who wrote many centuries ago. 'A talented women is better than a thousand untalented men, and a women of understanding is better than a thousand stupid men. women talented-women women-s-strength Karen Essex
a3c8e0b Perhaps the Queen's prayers, and those of Bernard, had been efficacious, or perhaps Louise had been more attentive in bed, for during 1145--the exact date is not recorded--she bore a daughter, who was named Marie in honour of the Virgin. If the infant was not the male heir to France so desired by the King--the Salic law forbade the succession of females to the throne--her arrival encouraged the royal parents to hope for a son in the future. Relationships between aristocratic parents and children were rarely close. Queens and noblewomen did not nurse their own babies, but handed them over at birth into the care of wet nurses, leaving themselves free to become pregnant again. history women royalty pregnancy Alison Weir
ee0fe91 Husbands are always angry, that's their nature. And the nature of us women, is not to pay a blind bit of notice. women wife husband M.C. Beaton
565ea7c Like most girls, I want a lot. Fame and fortune. Equal rights. Shoes no one else has. But I'd trade all that in for the perfect guy. (Don't tell me there's something wrong with that. I don't know of a single person who doesn't spend most of her time thinking about love.) Anyway, ever since I could think, I have been imagining and reimagining the exact sort of boy I want to love and who would love me back. Basically, I imagine someone who has all the good attributes of the male species and whose bad ones wouldn't ruin my life. women Sarah Miller
ea2a068 My voice thick with frustration, I declared that if men and women could only meet each other under normal circumstances, that delusions of instant love would be more infrequent. While I do believe that great attractions lead to genuine love, such as it had with my sister, Sara, and her husband, Assad, such a happy outcome is rare. When men and women rarely have the opportunity to enjoy the other's company in ordinary social occasions, spontaneous emotions are quick to rise to the surface, often ending in terrible personal tragedies. feminism women royal-family culture Jean Sasson
cfbea94 Of all the women he knew, she had meant the most; and was the one person in his life he felt he had missed, in some ways. women life love he-knew his-life love-of-his-life meant-the-most one-person only-love missed felt Larry McMurtry
abec27e Breasts are very important for women. Their clothes just don't hang right without them. women clothing Jennifer Crusie
abcc582 What kind of woman was she? What kind of woman was it who called to me from that calamity on the Seventh Avenue line? What kind of woman do I love now, with a fealty that will not cease, not till my occluded arteries send their clots up to the spongy interiors in my skull and I go mute and slack? I love the kind of woman whose hair has gone gray in a not terribly flattering way, the kind who doesn't even notice how she has to keeps having to buy larger jeans, the kind who likes big cars because she doesn't like to be uncomfortable. I love this woman because she is gifted with astounding premonitory skills: no matter how uncertain, how despondent, how lost her mate feels, no matter how dire the circumstances, she nonetheless predicts that Everything will be roses. women positivity optimism Rick Moody
9317964 Because this woman sobbed in the way that all women sob, whether they do it outwardly or whether they keep it silently locked up inside themselves. They sob because they realise, one day, that they were born on a planet of men, and that short of death or spinsterhood they can never escape. Effie's Aunt Rachel used to say, 'Even the slaves could run away, but where can women go? women sobbing Graham Masterton
56991f9 For as men have fists and heads to defend themselves, so women have a gentleness of silence about them, a barrier built of things of the spirit, of pain, of quiet, of helplessness, of grace, of all that is beautiful and womanly an equal part, given to them because they are women in defense of their womaness. And this barrier a man will find against him to turn aside his male attack, keep his arms pinned, stop his mouth, cool his eyes, reduce his heat and restrain his idle imaginings. This barrier it is that women who are women keep always at a height, coming from behind it only when, with knowledge and in light, they trust. You shall see it in their eyes. women trust womaness womanly Richard Llewellyn
a249612 [...] she hadn't realised how much she missed the company of women who laughed, women who spoke their own minds, women who didn't give a shit for anything. women women-s-strength Graham Masterton
319bb2e An Odonian undertook monogamy just as he might undertake a joint enterprise in production, a ballet or a soap-works. Partnership was a voluntarily constituted federation like any other. So long as it worked, it worked, and if it didn't work it stopped being. It was not an institution but a function. It had no sanction but that of private conscience. relationships women politics love moraily property sci-fi Ursula K. Le Guin
839e6d2 "Elk were mating now - The males were fighting, and they had to chase the females, which depleted the fat that both sexes had accumulated over the summer and thereby diminished their chances of surviving the winter. "It would be better for the elk," Dave said as we prepared dinner, "if the females just gave it up." All three women stared at him. A silence ensued. Dave said, "Or I could be wrong." sex nature women yellowstone Tim Cahill
a00bccf Lilies used to be a movie theatre, before. Students went there a lot; every spring they had a Humphrey Bogart festival, with Lauren Bacall or Katherine Hepburn, women on their own, making up their minds. They wore blouses with buttons down the front that suggested the possibilities of the word 'undone'. These women could not be undone; or not. They seemed to be able to choose. women empowering handmaid-s-tale undone Margaret Atwood
539321f "Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general--but to choose to use the vague expression "human rights" is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. That the problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human." human-rights women gender-equality sexism Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
57d2cd4 I like games of chance, including women. women Raymond Chandler
e15c297 "I had to do something about my longing, so I got up, went to the kitchen in my nightgown, peeled a pound of potatoes, boiled them up, sliced them, fried them in butter, salted them generously and ate every bite of them - asking my body the whole while if it would please accept the satisfaction of a pound of fried potatoes in lieu of the fulfillment of lovemaking. My body replied, only after eating every bite of food: "No deal, babe." -- women life love longing Elizabeth Gilbert
765eb64 How do you feel about homosexuals, Mr. Scavanni?' I asked. 'I think they're great. More women for the rest of us,' he said sarcastically. women Adrian McKinty
d8423bb The courage to continue before the face of despair is the recognition in those eyes of darkness we find our own night vision. Women blessed with death-eyes are fearless. death-and-dying feminism women fear fearless despair Terry Tempest Williams
effdc41 Women only wear beautiful clothes so that men will want to remove them. women clothes Hanif Kureishi
413ac55 Women get desperate, but they don't understand despair. women William Gaddis
baf0617 My father always says, choosing a wife is like putting your hand into a bag full of writhing creatures, with one eel to six snakes. What are the chances you will pull out the eel? women thomas-more marriage-advice wives Hilary Mantel
e881ae8 The most powerful men of the kingdom have dragged a duchess down and sent her out to be a marvel to the common people of London. They are so deeply afraid of her that they took the risk to dishonor their own. They are so anxious to save themselves that they thought they should throw her aside. women politics witch-trials Philippa Gregory
e7821be Louise was an urbanite, she preferred the gut-thrilling sound of an emergency siren slicing through the night to the noise of country birds at dawn. Pub brawls, rackety roadworks, mugged tourists, the badlands on a Saturday night - they all made sense, they were all part of the huge, dirty, torn social fabric. There was a war raging out there in the city and she was part of the fight, but the countryside unsettled her because she didn't know who the enemy was. She had always preferred North and South to Wuthering Heights. All that demented running around the moors, identifying yourself with the scenery, not a good role model for a woman. women country Kate Atkinson
af53452 She aint worth it. None of em are. He didnt answer for a while. Then he said: Yes they are. lovers men women Cormac McCarthy
cd89155 Women and cats do what they do; there is nothing a man can do about it women Robert A. Heinlein
760c634 Women, of their nature, crave for liberty; they will not be ordered around like servants. women thecanterburytales Peter Ackroyd
8f1dc67 Pulling away, I realized I had no place to go and nothing I wanted to do except satisfy my curiosity about a woman who was coming on like gangbusters and a big load of grief. grief women lust James Ellroy
7c081fb It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness... how did it go? Light, dark. Fear, courage. Cold, warmth. Female, male. It is yourself, Therem. Both and one. A shadow on snow. light women philosophy gender Ursula K. Le Guin
07d573f "He was savoring for the first time the ineffable subtleties of feminine refinement. Never had he encountered this grace of language, this quiet taste in dress, these relaxed, dove like postures. He marveled at the sublimity of her soul and at the lace on her petticoat. With her ever-changing moods, by turns brooding and gay, chattering and silent, fiery and casual, she aroused in him a thousand desires, awakening instincts or memories. She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague "she" of all the poetry books." women love Gustave Flaubert
79ecfbd There are lot of things we don't want to know about the people we love. women life love fight Chuck Palahniuk
843bfbd I just meant maybe you could set here and drink one of em with me. He squinted at her. You ever notice how women have trouble takin no for a answer? I think it starts about age three. What about men? They get used to it. They better. women Cormac McCarthy
3a84723 "Very likely some Mrs Grundy will observe, "I don't believe it, boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles." I dare say you don't, Mrs. Grundy, but it's true nevertheless. Women work a good many miracles, and I have a persuasion that they may perform even that of raising the standard of manhood by refusing to echo such sayings." men women good-wives Louisa May Alcott
f6b7f17 He disapproved, he didn't believe in girls drinking, he was full of the conventions of a generation older than himself. Of course one drank oneself, one fornicated, but one didn't lie with a friend's sister, and 'decent' girls were never squiffy. sex men women gender-relationships men-and-women gender morals Graham Greene
dc07942 Poor human weakness! With your words, your languages, your sounds, you speak and stammer--you define God, the heaven and the earth, chemistry and philosophy, and you cannot express, with your language, all the joy that you derive from a naked woman--or a plum pudding. women memoirs-of-a-madman Gustave Flaubert
34eb50d Florentino Ariza always forgot when he should not have that women, and Prudencia Pitre more than any other, always think about the hidden meanings of questions more than about the questions themselves. women questions Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
e1a40e6 "We come into this world through women: a woman who is spent, broken open, in awe. No wonder women have been worshiped ever since men first saw the crowning of a head, here, legs spread, a brushstroke of light. We are fire. We are water. We are earth. We are air. We are all things elemental. The world begins with "Yes," Changing women: we begin again like the moon. We can no longer deny the destiny that is ours by becoming women who wait: waiting to love, waiting to speak, waiting to act. This is not patience, but pathology. We are sensual, sexual beings, intrinsically bound to both heaven and earth, our bodies a hologram. In our withholding of power, we abrogate power, and that creates war. The Australian poet Judith Wright says, "Our dream was the wrong dream, war women Terry Tempest Williams
b1f0145 Some women are born with an instinct for knowing how things work--and what to do when they break. women women-s-fiction women-writers women-s-strength Barbara Delinsky
6bb40cd She had one of those husky voices that sounded as if she were permanently coming down with a cold. Men seemed to find that sexy in a woman, which Jackson thought was odd because it made women sound less like women and more like men. Maybe it was a gay thing. men women humor husky-voice sexy Kate Atkinson
13f636d The nature of living and loving is the act of reciprocity. As women, we are told that to be the guest is to receive. We are told that to be the host is to give. But what if it is the reverse? What if it is the guest who gives to the host and it is the host who receives from the guest each time she sets her table to welcome and feed those she loves? To be the guest and the host simultaneously is to imagine a mutual exchange of gifts predicated on respect and joy. If we could adopt this truth, perhaps we as women would be less likely to become martyrs. women giving-and-receiving Terry Tempest Williams
0e31397 His staff had shaken hands with her as though a woman was merely another kind of man. Fools! The seeds of Eve were in this radiant creature. The lullabyes of half a million years throbbed in her throat. Had they no sense of wonder, no reverence, no pride? women Mervyn Peake
75dc9b0 I like men very much, but sometimes ... they're so stupid, so stuffed with theories .... They go in straight lines only, and won't stop. It's dangerous to do that. It's dangerous to leave everything up to the men, you know. That's one reason why I'd like to go home, at least for a visit. To see what Elia with his theories, and my dear young Lev with his ideals, are up to. I get worried they'll go too fast and too straight and get us into a place we can't get out of, a trap. You see it seems to me that where men are weak and dangerous is in their vanity. A woman has a center, is a center. But a man isn't, he's a reaching out. So he reaches out and grabs things and piles them up around him and says, I'm this, I'm that, this is me, that's me, I'll prove that I am me! And he can wreck a lot of things, trying to prove it. men women straight-lines Ursula K. Le Guin
3e67f29 By the time I wrote this book I needed to look at heroics from outside and underneath, from the point of view of the people who are not included. The ones who can't do magic. The ones who don't have shining staffs or swords. Women, kids, the poor, the old, the powerless. Unheroes, ordinary people--my people. I didn't want to change Earthsea, but I needed to see what Earthsea looked like to us. heroes feminism heroism women heroics elderly Ursula K. Le Guin
93a9893 Es gibt zwei Sorten von Mannern. Die einen verstehen 'etwas von Frauen', die anderen sind solche, die einfach 'Frauen verstehen'. Ich weiss nicht, welche Sorte mir verdachtiger ist. understanding prejudice men women empathy mysogyny gender Sten Nadolny
c881e66 "Chese now," quod she, "oon of thise thynges tweye: To han me foul and old til that I deye, And be to yow a trewe, humble wyf, And nevere yow displese in al my lyf, Or elles ye wol han me yong and fair, And take youre aventure of the repair That shal be to youre hous by cause of me, Or in som oother place, may wel be. Now chese yourselven, wheither that yow liketh." marriage women choice chaucer feminity wife-of-bath wife Geoffrey Chaucer
970fa4d "... those selling abortion don't want them to have [the facts]," Virginia said heatedly. "Besides the Supreme Court doesn't agree with you. They judges seem to think we poor women would fall apart if we knew the facts, so they decided women don't have the right to know the full truth." She shook her head. "They've made it legal to withhold vital information, even when a woman requests it, for heaven's sake!" women truth supreme-court facts Francine Rivers
efd5f0c Not much to her credit to go through her life thinking, Well, good, now that's over, over. What was she looking forward to, what bonus was she hoping to get, when this, and this, and this, was over? Freedom--or not even freedom. Emptiness, a lapse of attention. It seemed all the time that she was having to provide a little more--in the way of attention, enthusiasm, watchfulness--than she was sure she had. She was straining, hoping not to be found out. Found to be as cold at heart as that Old Norse, Sophie. women faking-it Alice Munro
d5edfc0 ... just one more reminder that the rules are always different for girls, no matter who they are and no matter what they do. women girls rights rules Roxane Gay
bb492fd They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices. But they were all made out of thin invisible steel. women inspirational Betty Smith
88ea9c9 It is strange, and perhaps sad, that medical doctors came up with this terminology when they are charged with first doing no harm. women feminismism obese obesity Roxane Gay
dfbc457 Until her last moment on earth she was unaware that her irreparable fate as a disturbing woman was a daily disaster. women women-on-pedestals Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
ade805f And yet now and then he let himself steal a glance at her. Lovely dark colors of her skin, hair, and eyes. We are half-baked compared to them. Allowed out of the kiln before we were fully done. The old aboriginal myth; the truth, there. women humility Philip K. Dick
8b0b334 "I don't see why you're not just going for this.' Dovey looked her in the eyes, in the mirror. 'You a rocket. You go for thing, Dellarobia. That is you. When did you ever not?' woman women work women-things inequality gender Barbara Kingsolver
a0f24a1 [The ideology of beauty] has grown strong to take over the work of social coercion that myths about motherhood, domesticity, chastity, and passivity, no longer can manage. It is seeking right now to undo psychologically and covertly all the good things that feminism did for women materially and overtly. feminism women Naomi Wolf
2358808 The sun dances in her and she has an immense joy of life dance women joy happiness sun James Clavell
53dd3d5 ... because the Legs wasn't fearful of heights or swimming in rough water or Death itself she wasn't afraid to risk making a fool of herself. Maybe you think that's something of no consequence but it isn't - for making a fool of yourself, offering yourself to others to laugh at, to jeer, that takes guts. feminism women-s-rights women feminist Joyce Carol Oates
5b378c0 What women want is still what it's always been: either you or, more likely, not you. women preferences truth-of-life David Mitchell
39721b5 Now you know what hurt it brings to women when men come into the world. Remember, and make it up to your Mama and to all women. men feminism women Richard Llewellyn
8769557 Why didn't you talk about whether women are funny or not? I just felt that by commenting on that in any real way, it would be tacit approval of it as a legitimate debate, which it isn't. It would be the same as addressing the issue of 'Should dogs and cats be able to care for our children? They're in the house anyway.' I try not to make it a habit to seriously discuss nonsensical hot-button issues. feminism women Mindy Kaling
149a17b It was October 2001 and I lived in New York City. I was twenty two. I, like many of my female friends, suffered from a strange combination of post 9/11 anxiety and height of Sex and the City anxiety. They are distinct and unnerving anxieties. The questions that ran through my ming were something like this: 'Should I keep a gas mask in my kitchen? Am I supposed to be able to afford Manolo Blahnik shoes? What is Barneys New York? You're trying to tell me a place called 'Barney's' is fancy?'Where are the fabulous gay friends that I was promised? Gay guys hate me! Is this anthrax or powdered sugar? Help! Help! youth women sex-and-the-city twenties Mindy Kaling
027acd7 I especially like eavesdropping on women my age. Besides being titillating, it also helps me gauge where I'm at in comparison. women eavesdropping Mindy Kaling
162cb0b It was, she believed, a simple and unassailable fact of life that if a woman went to epic lengths to throw herself on the mercy of a man, the man would not, could not, refuse. women Nicholas Evans
cf3c127 Yeah, it's hard, baby It's hard right down to the bone I said Oh, it's hard baby It's hard right down to the very bone It's hard when you're a woman And you find yourself all alone I've been flapping and scrapping And running from door to door You know I've been flapping and scrapping, honey Running from door to door women Walter Dean Myers
31d38eb Art thou so deeply read in nature and her large philosophy, and I am yet to teach thee that deadliest hellebore or the vomit of a toad are qualified poison to the malice of a woman? women vengeance E.R. Eddison
9d48352 Women are human beings and have a right to control their own bodies. When that is denied, they are not free. women freedom rights human-beings George Lakoff
d02ddf1 Two women at the same event wearing the same outfit is a disaster. But two women at the same event singing the same song is a party. And two women at the same event talking about Doris from Fame is a friendship for life. Fill yourself with words, choruses, and heroes, like you're supposed to fill your wardrobe with shoes, brooches, and belts. women empowerment songs Caitlin Moran
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