The Odd Women Quotes

“A womanly occupation means, practically, an occupation that a man disdains.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“There should be no such thing as a class of females vulgarized by the necessity of finding daily amusement.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Let beauty perish if it cannot ally itself with mind.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“. . . the love of a man and a woman who can think intelligently may be the best thing life has to offer them.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“I wish girls fell down and died of hunger in the streets, instead of creeping to their garrets and the hospitals. I should like to see their dead bodies collected together in some open place for the crowd to stare at.'
Monica gazed at her with wide eyes.
'You mean, I suppose, that people would try to reform things.'
'Who knows? Perhaps they might only congratulate each other that a few of the superfluous females had been struck off.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“I don't think . . . there's much real difference between men and women. That is, there wouldn't be, if women had fair treatment.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Heart-break is a very old-fashioned disorder, associated with poverty of the brain.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Never had it occurred to Widdowson that a wife remains an individual, with rights and obligations independent of their wifely condition.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“In this humor [bantering/flirtatious] she [Rhoda Nunn] seemed more than ever a challenge to his manhood. She was armed at all points. She feared nothing that he might say. No flush of apprehension; no nervous tremor; no weak self-consciousness. Yet he saw her as a woman, and desirable.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Do you know anything about Arromanches? A very quiet little spot on the Normandy coast. You get to it by an hour's coach from Bayeux. Not infested by English.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“We have bidden the world go round for our amusement; henceforth it is our occupation to observe and discuss and make merry.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“in”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“She had great qualities; but was there not much in her that he must subdue, reform, if they were really to spend their lives together? Her energy of domination perhaps excelled his.”
― George Gissing, Odd Women

“If it became known that she had taken a step such as few women would have dared to take — deliberately setting an example of new liberty — her position in the eyes of all who knew her remained one of proud independence.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“CHAPTER I THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD 'So to-morrow, Alice,' said Dr. Madden, as he walked with his eldest daughter on the coast-downs by Clevedon, 'I shall take steps for insuring my life for a thousand pounds.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“No, my dear. We happen to be going to the root of things, that's all. Perhaps it's as well to do so now and then.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Ten to one she had in mind some idiot heroine of a book.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Love revives the barbarian; - it wouldn't mean much, if it didn't. In this one respect, I suppose no man, however civilized, would wish the woman he loves to be his equal. Marriage by capture can't quite be done away with. You say you have not the least love for me; if you had, should I like you to confess it instantly? A man must plead and woo; but there are different ways. I can't kneel before you and exclaim about my miserable unworthiness - for I am not unworthy of you. I shall never call you queen and goddess - unless in delirium, and I think I should soon weary of a woman who put her head under my foot. Just because I am stronger than you, and have stronger passions, I take that advantage, - try to overcome, as I may, the womanly resistance which is one of your charms.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Like most men of his kind, he viewed religion as a precious and powerful instrument for directing the female conscience.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“This, to his mind, was the perfect relation of wife to a husband. She must look up to him as her benefactor, her providence. It would have pleased him still better if she had not possessed a penny of her own . . .”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Hear-break is a very old-fashioned disorder, associated with poverty of the brain.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Life's as you take it: all gloom or moderately shiny.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“La vita è come la prendi: tutta malinconica, o moderatamente luminosa.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Ogni donna ha una maschera per tutti, tranne che per un uomo.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“Un ideale spinto all'estremo non è poi tanto meglio dell'assenza di ideali.”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women

“different—swift, virile”
― George Gissing, The Odd Women