A Hero of Our Time

by Mikhail Lermontov

There is nothing more paradoxical than the female mind; it is difficult to convince a woman of anything; they have to be led into convincing themselves. The order of the proofs by which they demolish their prejudices is most original; to learn their dialectic it is necessary to overthrow in your own mind every scholastic rule of logic. For example, the usual way: "This man loves me; but I am married: therefore I must not love him." The woman's way: "I must not love him, because I am married; but he loves me—therefore"... A few dots here, because reason has no more to say. But, generally, there is something to be said by the tongue, and the eyes, and, after these, the heart—if there is such a thing. What if these notes should one day meet a woman's eye? "Slander!" she will exclaim indignantly. Ever since poets have written and women have read them (for which the poets should be most deeply grateful) women have been called angels so many times that, in very truth, in their simplicity of soul, they have believed the compliment, forgetting that, for money, the same poets have glorified Nero as a demigod...