RAMBLES IN WOMANLAND
When a woman says of her husband, 'He is a wretch!' she may still love
him; probably she does. When she says, 'Oh, he is a good sort'--poor
fellow!
* * *
After bravery and generosity, tact and discretion are the two qualities
that women most admire in men; audacity comes next.
* * *
Speaking of his wife, a Duke says, 'The Duchess'; a man standing always
on ceremony, 'Mrs. B.'; a gentleman, 'My wife'; an idiot, 'My better
half'; a common man, 'The missus'; a working man, as a compliment, 'The
old woman'; a French grocer, 'La patronne'; a French working man, 'La
bourgeoise.' The sweet French word 'epouse' is only used now by Paris
concierges.
* * *
Women are roses. I always suspected it from the thorns.
* * *
In the good old times of poetry and adventures, when a man was refused
a girl by her parents, he carried her off; now he asks for another. But,
then, posting exists no longer except for letters, and there is no
poetry in eloping in a railroad car. Oh, progress! oh, civilization!
such is thy handicraft! Dull, prosaic times we are living in!
* * *
Woman is an angel who may become a devil, a sister of mercy who may
change into a viper, a ladybird who may be transformed into a
stinging-bee. Sometimes she never changes, and all her lifetime remains
angel, sister of mercy, ladybird, and sweet fragrant flower. It depends
a great deal on the gardener.
* * *
When a man is on the wrong path in life, it is seldom he does not meet a
woman who says to him, 'Don't go that way'; but when it is a woman who
has lost her way, she always meets a man who indicates to her the wrong
path.
* * *
The Lord took from man a rib, with which He made a woman. As soon as
this process was finished, woman went back to man, and took the rest of
him, which she has kept ever since.
* * *
The heart is a hollow and fleshy muscle which causes the blood to set in
motion. It appears that this is what we love with. Funny!
* * *
Circe was an enchantress who changed men into pigs. Why do I say was? I
don't think that she is dead.
* * *
Women were not born to command, but they have enough inborn power to
govern man who commands, and, as a rule, the best and happiest marriages
are those where women have most authority, and where their advice is
oftenest followed.
* * *
There are three ways for a man to get popular with women. The first is
to love them, the second to sympathize with their inclinations, and the
third to give them reasons that will raise them in their own estimation.
In other words, love them, love what they love, or cause them to love
themselves better. Love, always love.
* * *
A woman knows that a man is in love with her long before he does. A
woman's intuition is keener than her sight; in fact, it is a sixth sense
given to her by nature, and which is more powerful than the other five
put together.
* * *
Very beautiful, as well as very good, women are seldom very clever or
very witty; yet a beautiful woman who is good is the masterpiece of
creation.
* * *
A woman will often more easily resist the love which she feels for a
man than the love which she inspires in him. It is in the most beautiful
nature of woman to consider herself as a reward, but it is also,
unfortunately for her, too often her misfortune.
* * *
We admire a foreigner who gets naturalized in our own country, and
despise a compatriot who makes a foreigner of himself. If a man joins
our religion, we call him converted; if one of ours goes over to
another, we call him perverted. In the same way, we blame the
inconstancy of a woman when she leaves us for another, and we find her
charming when she leaves another to come to us.
* * *
The reputation that a woman should try to obtain and deserve is to be a
sensible woman in her house and an amiable woman in society.
* * *
Frivolous love may satisfy a man and a woman for a time, but only true
and earnest love can satisfy a husband and a wife. Only this kind of
love will survive the thousand-and-one little drawbacks of matrimony.
* * *
Men and women can no more conceal the love they feel than they can feign
the one which they feel not.
* * *
Love feeds on contrasts to such an extent that you see dark men prefer
blondes, poets marry cooks and laundresses, clever men marry fools, and
giants marry dwarfs.
* * *
God has created beautiful women in order to force upon men the belief in
His existence.
* * *
Like all the other fruits placed on earth for the delectation of men,
the most beautiful women are not always the best and the most delicious.
* * *
In the heroic times of chivalry men drew their swords for the sake of
women; in these modern prosaic ones they draw their cheques.
* * *
Women entertain but little respect for men who have blind confidence in
their love and devotion; they much prefer those who feel that they have
to constantly keep alive the first and deserve the second.
* * *
A woman can take the measure of a man in half the time it takes a man to
have the least notion of a woman.
* * *
There are three kinds of men: those who will come across temptations and
resist them, those who will avoid them for fear of succumbing, and those
who seek them. Among the first are to be found only men whose love for
a woman is the first consideration of their lives.
* * *
Young girls should bear in mind that husbands are not creatures who are
always making love, any more than soldiers are men who are always
fighting.
* * *
A love affair will interest even a very old woman, just as the account
of a race will always interest an old jockey. Habit, you see!
* * *
The friendship of women for women is very often less based on love, or
even sympathy, than on little indiscreet confidences which they may have
made to one another.
* * *
In order that love may be lasting, it must be closely allied with tried
friendship. One cannot replace the other, but so long as both march
abreast, living together, a man and a woman can find life delicious.
* * *
It is not matrimony that kills love, but the way in which many people
live in the state of matrimony. It may be affirmed, however, that only
intelligent diplomatists (alas! the select few!) can make love last long
in matrimonial life.
* * *
Women who suggest to the mind notes of interrogation are more
interesting than those, too perfect, who only suggest notes of
admiration.
* * *
Constant reproaches do not kill love so quickly and so surely as
constant reminders of what one has done to deserve gratitude. Why?
Simply because Cupid loves freedom, and lives on it. To ask for love as
a debt of gratitude is like forcing it, and the failure is fatal.
* * *
Women are all actresses. What makes actresses so fascinating and
attractive to men is that they are women twice over.
* * *
Woman is weak and man is strong--so we constantly hear, at any rate.
Then why, in the name of common-sense, do we expect to find in women
virtues that demand a strength of which we men are not capable?
* * *
There are women in the world who love with such ardour, such sincerity,
and such devotion, that, after their death, they ought to be canonized.
* * *
Love is a divine law; duty is only a human--nay, only a social--one.
That is why love will always triumph over duty; it is the greater of the
two.
* * *
Lovers are very much like thieves; they proceed very much in the same
way, and the same fate eventually awaits them. First, they take
superfluous precautions; then by degrees they neglect them, until they
forget to take the necessary ones, and they are caught.
* * *
A man who has been married enters the kingdom of heaven ex-officio,
having served his purgatory on earth; but if he has been married twice
he is invariably refused admittance, as the Sojourn of the Seraphs is no
place for lunatics.
* * *
As long as there is one woman left on the face of the earth, and one man
left to observe her, the world will be able to hear something new about
women.
* * *
A man may be as perfect as you like, he will never be but a rough
diamond until he has been cut and polished by the delicate hand of a
woman.
* * *
Middle-aged and elderly men are often embellished by characteristic
lines engraven on their faces, but women are not jealous of them.
* * *
A woman who marries a second time runs two risks: she may regret that
she lost her first husband, or that she did not always have the second
one. But, in the first case, her second husband may regret her first one
even more than she does, and tell her so, too.
* * *
Many men say that they marry to make an end; but they forget that if
marriage is for them an end, it is a beginning for the women, and then,
look out!
* * *
It is a great misfortune not to be loved by the one you love; but it is
a still greater one to be loved by the one whom you have ceased to love.
* * *
Love is like most contagious diseases: the more afraid you are of it,
the more likely you are to catch it.
* * *
Men and women have in common five senses; but women possess a sixth one,
by far the keenest of all--intuition. For that matter, women do not even
think, argue, and judge as safely as they feel.
* * *
Cupid and Hymen are brothers, but, considering the difference in their
temperaments, they cannot be sons by the same wife.
* * *
The motto of Cupid is, 'All or nothing'; that of Hymen, 'All and
nothing.'
* * *
Love is more indulgent than Friendship for acts of infidelity.
* * *
If men were all deaf, and women all blind, matrimony would stand a much
better chance of success.