#women

People only picked the pretty, sweet-smelling flowers. The ones with thorns were left alone. ↗

— Nenia Campbell

#beauty #purity-myth #sad #beauty

The United States finds itself with forces of reaction. Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture? The enslavement of women? ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#islam #islamism #jihad #music #taliban

For one of the first pressures that bear down on American girls is the pressure not only to be liked but to be like everyone else. This initial feat of self-transformation often involves loosening one's grip on that quiet sense of inner self and hitching one's wagon to a single standard of beauty. The stress of leaping through that hoop insinuates itself into the young heart and soul with a vengeance, and insecurities go from being hard little buds of confusion to overripe, snarled and tyrannical fruits that hang on the vine as we age. ↗

— Debra Ollivier

#insecurity #women #age

Just about all men need a woman in one way or another, unless they’re very strange indeed. Tormenting you refreshes him. And you shouldn’t underestimate the gratitude all men feel for women’s beauty. Men who truly don’t like flowers are very uncommon and men who don’t respond to a beautiful woman are even more uncommon. It’s not primarily sexual; it’s a lifting of the spirits beauty gives. He’ll be in to torment you, and tease you, and enrage you, but really to have a good, refreshing look at you. ↗

— Robertson Davies

#women #beauty

My heart does not desire what my eyes does not admire. ↗

— Habeeb Akande

#beauty #desire #heart #women #beauty

How beautiful that is!" said Laurie softly, for he was quick to see and feel beauty of any kind. ↗

— Louisa May Alcott

#love #women #beauty

Israelis are a mix of North African, Levantine, and Eastern European, which inflames the politics but does amazing things for the women. ↗

— Kenneth Cain

#israelis #middle-east #politics #women #beauty

Quick dinner with ... Ang [Lee] and his wife Jane who's visiting with the children for a while. We talked about her work as a microbiologist and the behaviour of the epithingalingie under the influence of cholesterol. She's fascinated by cholesterol. Says it's very beautiful: bright yellow. She says Ang is wholly uninterested. He has no idea what she does. I check this out for myself. 'What does Jane do?' I ask. 'Science,' he says vaguely. ↗

— Emma Thompson

#cholesterol #disparate-interests #husbands #lack-of-interest #married-couples

In a world of watered-down bestsellers and formula novels, Hitching to Nirvana eases back just enough to show the blade which cuts the real open, then bolts forward again, giving us a charged, swerving dance to self-actualization. Hitching to Nirvana is a magnetic forcefield, not just pulling us beautifully into the story, but into our own lives. It's rare when a writer can open the shared world with such a deft, personal touch. Janet Mason is a genius. ↗

— C.A. Conrad

#literary #women-s-fiction #beauty

How she looks is watered-down. How she looks is disappearing. How she looks is erased. "Don't stress", she says. "This is just me not wearing any makeup. ↗

— Chuck Palahniuk

#humor #life #women #beauty