Dominique Enright - She Said: Witty Words from Wise Women

This edition first published in 2018 First published as Witty, Wicked and Wise in Great Britain in 2000 by Michael OMara Books Limited 9 Lion Yard Tremadoc Road London SW4 7NQ Copyright Michael OMara Books Limited 2000, 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-78243-927-1 in hardback format ISBN: 978-1-78243-929-5 in ebook format www.mombooks.com Cover design by Claire Cater Patterns on cover and throughout: shutterstock.com CONTENTS Sharp of tongue and sharp of wit here is a fascinating selection of the best of womens quotations throughout history, collected from as early as 700 BC right up to the twenty-first century. There is something here to appeal to everyone, whether it is witty comments on politics and public figures, wicked remarks about friends and family, or wise words on life and love. For those accustomed to standard dictionaries of quotations where there are at least ten quotations from men to every one from a woman it might come as a surprise that there are so many well-established and published women writers.

How many people have heard of Hypatia, for example, the fourth-century Greek philosopher, writer, astronomer and mathematician? Or the tenth-century Japanese writers Sei Shnagon and Murasaki Shikibu? And if you think, well, that was a long time ago, think again. Few today will have come across the actress and playwright Susannah Centlivre (c. 16691723), who wrote nineteen plays and was admired by Alexander Pope. The eighteenth century spawned a great number of now rarely read women writers such as Marguerite Blessington, who wrote novels and a book about Byron and travelled extensively; Hannah Cowley, who wrote plays; and Hannah More, a member of the Blue Stocking Circle and a most energetic playwright. The truth is that history is littered with prolific and praiseworthy women who have been cast into the shadows by worthier men. And what do women have to say about that? As for you men, you may, if you please, live and be slaves, scorned Boudica.

Even his ignorance is of a sounder quality, pronounced George Eliot of men in general. Why dont you write books people can read? complained James Joyces wife, Nora, and Mrs Gladstone was certainly not afraid to tell her husband, the Prime Minister, that he could be pretty boring at times. Of course, some women have stood up to men, history and time: Elizabeth I, Jane Austen, George Eliot, George Sand, Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Coco Chanel and Gertrude Stein, to name just a few. Whatever walk of life they hailed from, readers will delight in the pithy pronouncements of those included here, from the forthright Sarah Josepha Hale (17881879), who is credited with Mary Had a Little Lamb and the creation of Thanksgiving as a US national holiday, to the splendidly acerbic Helen Rowland (18751950), to the precocious but sadly short-lived Marjory Fleming (18031811) who succumbed to measles. The last word should always lie with a woman: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (16891762) Incessant company is as bad as solitary confinement. Virginia Woolf (18821941) Superior people never make long visits. Marianne Moore (18871972) Minute attention to propriety stops the growth of virtue. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (17591797) It is bad ton to overwhelm with insipid flattery all women that we meet, without distinction of age, rank or merit. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (17591797) It is bad ton to overwhelm with insipid flattery all women that we meet, without distinction of age, rank or merit.

It may indeed please some of light and frivolous minds, but will disgust a woman of good sense. Madame Celnart (17961865) I do not want people to be very agreeable as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal. Jane Austen (17751817) Tact is after all a kind of mind-reading. Sarah Orne Jewett (18491909) Nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman; it is at once the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things. Jane Welsh Carlyle (18011866) Good taste is the worst vice ever invented. Margaret Mitchell (19001949) Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. Margaret Mitchell (19001949) Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others.

If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use. Emily Post (18731960) The tragedy of English cooking is that plain cooking cannot be entrusted to plain cooks. Marcelle Azra Hincks, Countess Morphy (c. 18741938) The English never smash in a face. They merely refrain from asking it to dinner. Madeleine Talmage Astor (18931940) as she was being helped over the rail of the Titanic, April 1912 We invite people like that to tea, but we dont marry them. Hester Alice Stapleton-Cotton, Lady Chetwode (18511930) on her son-in-law-to-be John Betjeman Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation? Stella Gibbons (19021989) Theres nothing on earth to do here but look at the view and eat. Hester Alice Stapleton-Cotton, Lady Chetwode (18511930) on her son-in-law-to-be John Betjeman Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation? Stella Gibbons (19021989)