Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about women

197 quotes from 127 people

Most readBy personPage 12 of 14

We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen, or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.
Gloria Steinem1934–2026“Address to the Women of America” (10 July 1971)
- Freedom
As the little boy said when asked if he wanted to be a lawyer like his mother, “Oh no, that’s women’s work.” Logic has nothing to do with oppression.
Gloria Steinem1934–2026Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983), p. 367
- Work
In the old times, women did not get their lives written, though I don’t doubt many of them were much better worth writing than the men’s.
Harriet Beecher Stowe1811–1896The Pearl of Orr’s Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine (1862).
- Writing
How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going.
Harry Stylesborn 1994Interview by Cameron Crowe in Rolling Stone (18 April 2017)
- Youth
The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
- Marriage
I am tempted to think that to be despised by her sex is a very great compliment to a woman.
William Makepeace Thackeray1811–1863Vanity Fair (1848), Chapter XIIIn context
In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.
Margaret Thatcher1925–2013Speech to members of the National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds, delivered at the Royal Albert Hall (May 20, 1965); as quoted in Why Women Should Rule the World, HarperCollins (2008), Dee Dee Myers, p. 227
- Politics
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman?
Sojourner Truth1797–1883Speech at the Women’s Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio (29 May 1851), in the version Frances Dana Gage published in 1863; the report printed at the time, in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, has no “ain’t I a woman?”
- Race
What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
Mark Twain1835–1910
- Men
To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girl friends.
?UnattributedOften credited to Benjamin Franklin
Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t legally torture them to death.
?Unattributed
The curve is more powerful than the sword.
Mae West1893–1980
- Sex
I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
Rebecca West1892–1983“Mr. Chesterton in Hysterics,” in The Clarion, (14 November 1913), re-published in The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17 (1982), p. 219
Men always want to be a woman’s first love; women have a more subtle instinct: what they like is to be a man’s last romance.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900
- Men
Woman begins by resisting a man’s advances and ends by blocking his retreat.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900