Bev

“A Frenchman's self-assurance stems from his belief that he is mentally and physically irresistibly fascinating to both men and women. An Englishman's self-assurance is founded on his being a citizen of the best organized state in the world and on the fact that, as an Englishman, he always knows what to do, and that whatever he does as an Englishman is unquestionably correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets. A Russian is self-assured simply because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe in the possibility of knowing anything fully.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
― Mark Twain