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Toni Morrison

Women’s rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair.

Women’s rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about “us”; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.

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Toni Morrison

And they loved their love so much they would kill anybody who got in its way.

Pretty woman, he thought. Pretty little black-skinned woman. Who wanted to kill for love, die for love. The pride, the conceit of these doormat women amazed him. They were always women who had been spoiled children. Whose whims had been taken seriously by adults and who grew up to be the stingiest, greediest people on earth and out of their stinginess grew their stingy little love that ate everything in sight. They could not believe or accept the fact that they were unloved; they believed that the world itself was off balance when it appeared as though they were not loved. Why did they think they were so lovable? Why did they think their brand of love was better than, or even as good as, anybody else’s? But they did. And they loved their love so much they would kill anybody who got in its way.

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Robert Browning

Womanliness means only motherhood; All love begins and ends there.

Womanliness means only motherhood;
All love begins and ends there.

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William Faulkner

Women do have an affinity for evil

Women do have an affinity for evil, for believing that no woman is to be trusted, but that some men are too innocent to protect themselves.

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Downton Abbey

I’m a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose.

Dowager Countess: I’m a woman, Mary. I can be as contrary as I choose.

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Northanger Abbey

No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves

No man is offended by another man’s admiration of the woman he loves, it is the woman only who can make it a torment.

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Dorothy Parker

Women and elephants never forget.

Women and elephants never forget.

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The Catcher in the Rye

She inhaled and all, but she didn’t wolf the smoke down, the way most women around her age do.

She looked nice, smoking. She inhaled and all, but she didn’t wolf the smoke down, the way most women around her age do. She had a lot of charm. She had quite a lot of sex appeal, too, if you really want to know.

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Lily Tomlin

I have always felt that humor was a wonderful vehicle to let us become connected with each other

I have always felt that humor was a wonderful vehicle to let us become connected with each other and ourselves… I try to portray the similarities and polarities in men and women, so that we can acknowledge and embrace our collective consciousness.

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Gone with the Wind

How fickle is woman.

Rhett Butler: How fickle is woman.

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Jane Austen

one very strong argument in favour of matrimony

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.

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Ally McBeal

So how has it come to this? We’re smart women, we’re fairly attractive.

Ally: So how has it come to this? We’re smart women, we’re fairly attractive.
Renee: I’m even hot.

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Euripides

Woman is woman’s natural ally.

Woman is woman’s natural ally.

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Oscar Wilde

Every woman grows up to be her mother: it is her curse. No man does, and that is his.

Every woman grows up to be her mother: it is her curse. No man does, and that is his.

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Dorothy Parker

With this the gist and sum of it, What earthly good can come of it?

Woman wants monogamy:
man delights in novelty.
Love is woman’s moon and sun;
man has other forms of fun.
Woman lives but in her lord;
Count to ten and man is bored.
With this the gist and sum of it,
What earthly good can come of it?

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Margaret Thatcher

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

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Maryon Pearson

Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.

Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

Women try their luck; men risk theirs.

When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed.

Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed.

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Rebecca West

people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

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All About Eve

Funny business, a woman’s career, the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster.

Margo Channing: Funny business, a woman’s career, the things you drop on the way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you’ll need them again when you get back to being a woman. It’s one career all females have in common-being a woman. Sooner or later we’ve got to work at it no matter how many other careers we’ve had or wanted. And in the last analysis nothing is any good unless you can look up just before dinner or turn around in bed and there he is. Without that you’re not a woman. You’re something with a French provincial office or a book full of clippings but you’re not a woman. Slow, curtain, the end.