Favorite Quotations

[Brown Eyes]

"All this pitting of sex against sex, of quality against quality; all this claiming of superiority and imputing of inferiority belong to the private-school stage of human existence where there are sides, and it is necessary for one side to beat another side." 

~Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929

Thanks Scott!  I love this one!

I'll post some more quotations when I get home from work.

[Brown Eyes]

OK, so I'm back to post while I'm still at work.    But, this one is a really interesting one having to do with art... so it's at least somewhat relevant to work.


"I ask your forgiveness, I am a mountain tiger."

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/5876411-3aa.jpg" border="0" />
Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1474/1478 by Leonardo da Vinci


This painting was made at the time of Ginevra's marriage when she was only 16.  The most fascinating thing about her is that she's a rare example of a known female poet from the Renaissance era.  The quotation above is the only surviving line of her poetry known.  But, she is much discussed by historians and in records left by her peers.  It is believed that Leonardo became friends with her (probably following this commissioned portrait)... reflecting a pattern of his, which was to befriend particularly interesting, intellectual women of his day.

[Brown Eyes]

They created it.
Now let's take it over.
~ Patti Smith

[Brown Eyes]

"Afraid, she thinks.  He is so afraid that she is at the beginning of what he is at the end of, that her success will ultimately mean his failure. 'Am I not the future, Robert?' she says, 'Isn't that what you were saying?'"
~Helen Humphreys (author)

[Brown Eyes]

"I want every girl in the world to pick up a guitar and start screaming."
-Courtney Love

[Pipedream]

"I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by
someone recognized wiser than oneself."

~ Marlene Dietrich

I gotta agree with Marlene. Great idea for a thread Amanda!!! 

[Pipedream]

"The ideal woman is as rare a thing as the ideal man, just a little bit more frequent."

~ Hildegard Knef (German actress and singer 1925 - 2002)

[Fran]

"In this dirty-minded world, she thought, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore -- or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you don't fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you. But, she thought, there is nothing wrong with me."

-- the thoughts of Jenny Fields, a character in John Irving's "The World According to Garp"

[Brown Eyes]

Thanks for these great contributions Friends! 

"In this dirty-minded world, she thought, you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore -- or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you don't fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you. But, she thought, there is nothing wrong with me."


-- the thoughts of Jenny Fields, a character in John Irving's "The World According to Garp"

Fran, this one made me think of the classic Rebecca West quotation:

"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."

[Pipedream]

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful."
~  Marie Curie