Pericles Quotes

No man can understand why a woman shouldn't prefer a good reputation to a good time.

A woman's greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.

... if I had been a man, self-respect, family pressure and the public opinion of my class would have pushed me into a money-making profession; as a mere woman I could carve out a career of disinterested research.

I feel like guys don't want to stop me no more.

A woman should always challenge our respect, and never move our compassion.

I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women.

Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality. We aren’t merely objects of desire.

I have always disliked being a man. The whole idea of manhood in America is pitiful, in my opinion. This version of masculinity is a little like having to wear an ill-fitting coat for one's entire life (by contrast, I imagine femininity to be an oppressive sense of nakedness).

A man wants his virility regarded. A woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. [Here] one is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.

It takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for.

There isn't any problem with little girls. And there isn't any problem with young women or adult women. I mean, they are model citizens. It's the guys that create all of the problems in our culture. And so it's the guys that have to be reprogrammed. Not the women.

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one...should be a deep belief in your own dignity. Your worth and your own somebodiness... Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.

Why can't a woman be more like a man? Men are so honest, so thoroughly square; Eternally noble, historically fair; Who, when you win, will always give your back a pat. Why can't a woman be like that?

The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be, rather than recognising how we are.

A woman takes off her claim to respect along with her garments.

The saddest thing for a girl to do is to dumb herself down for a guy.

Maleness in America is not absolutely defined; it has to be kept and re-earned every day, and one essential element in the definition is beating women in every game that both sexes play.

I feel like I don't see myself as all that different from other humans as a woman, but I'm surprised by how frequently I'm asked to see myself differently. So that's one kind of terror to have to face. Am I a unicorn? What's sticking out of my head that I'm not seeing? I'm simply female, and that puts me alongside all of my human counterparts.

And that is a hard route for a woman to come through. There's still a lot of roles that have to be conformed to. It's quite an old fashioned environment in a lot of ways.

Do you know when you may concede your insignificance? Before God or, perhaps, before the intellect, beauty, or nature, but not before people. Among people, one must be conscious of one's dignity.

If I am not worth the wooing, I surely am not worth the winning!

There is nothing for which men ask to be paid dearer than for humiliation.

Women who insist upon having the same options as men would do well to consider the option of being the strong, silent type

Traditionally, women have a lot of different roles in society. It is very difficult to balance all these roles and at the same time to compete with men. A leading, successful woman has to put in much bigger efforts to be more competent and faster, more dynamic and organized, than a successful man.