Rambles in Womanland - O'Rell Max

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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.

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      I sometimes wonder how some women dare go out when it is windy. Their hats are fixed to their hair by means of long pins; their hair is fixed to their heads by means of short ones, and sometimes it happens that their heads are fixed to their shoulders by the most delicate of contrivances. Yes, it is wonderful!

      Fiction is full of Kings and Princes marrying shepherdesses and beggar-maids; but in reality it is only the Grand-Ducal House of Tuscany, which for nearly three hundred years has exhibited royal Princesses running away with dancing masters and French masters engaged at their husbands' courts.

      A man in love is always interesting. What a pity it is that husbands cannot always be in love!

      Men who always praise women do not know them well; men who always speak ill of them do not know them at all.

      What particularly flatters the vanity of women is to know that some men love them and dare not tell them so. However, they do not always insist on those men remaining silent for ever.

      The saddest spectacle that the world can offer is that of a sweet, sensible, intelligent woman married to a conceited, tyrannical fool.

      The mirror is the only friend who is allowed to know the secrets of a woman's imperfections.

      When a woman is deeply in love, the capacity of her heart for charity is without limit. If all women were in love there would be no poverty on the face of the earth.

      The fidelity of a man to the woman he loves is not a duty, but almost an act of selfishness. It is for his own sake still more than for hers that he should be faithful to her.

      Two excellent kinds of wine mixed together may make a very bad drink. An excellent man

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