Welcome to the Quotable Women Collection

Quotable Women, like BeMoreCreative.com, encourages thinking, working, and living more creatively. Creativity is "the power to connect the seemingly unconnected" (W. Plommer). To support this work, we earn a small affiliate commission. Please browse creatively!


Natalia Ginzburg: Children should be...

Natalia Ginzburg: Children should be...

Children should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to...

More about this quote

Jane Austen: One does not...

Jane Austen: One does not...

One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it unless it has all been suffering, nothing but...

More about this quote

Rose Tremain: Life is not...

Rose Tremain: Life is not...

Life is not a dress rehearsal.

Source: In the Sunday Correspondent (London), 24 Dec...

More about this quote

Marguerite Duras: The best way...

Marguerite Duras: The best way...

The best way to fill time is to waste it.

Source: Practicalities, Wasting Time,...

More about this quote

Marguerite Duras: Before they're plumbers...

Marguerite Duras: Before they're plumbers...

Before they're plumbers or writers or taxi drivers or unemployed or journalists, men are men. Whether heterosexual or...

More about this quote

Djuna Barnes: I'm a fart...

Djuna Barnes: I'm a fart...

I'm a fart in a gale of wind, a humble violet, under a cow pat.

Source: Doctor, in...

More about this quote

Djuna Barnes: Life is painful,...

Djuna Barnes: Life is painful,...

Life is painful, nasty and short . . . in my case it has only been painful and nasty.

More about this quote

Willa Cather: A child's attitude...

Willa Cather: A child's attitude...

A child's attitude toward everything is an artist's attitude.

Source: The Song of...

More about this quote

Anne Tyler: II would advise...

Anne Tyler: II would advise...

II would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them -- without a...

More about this quote

Lillian Carter: I don't think...

Lillian Carter: I don't think...

I don't think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta...

More about this quote

Helene Deutsch: Their capacity for...

Helene Deutsch: Their capacity for...

Their capacity for identification is not an expression of inner poverty but of inner...

More about this quote

Princess Anne: Golf seems to...

Princess Anne: Golf seems to...

Golf seems to be an arduous way to go for a walk. I prefer to take the dog's out.

More about this quote

Ninon de Lenclos: We should take...

Ninon de Lenclos: We should take...

We should take care to lay in a stock of provisions, but not of pleasures: these should be gathered day by...

More about this quote

Ninon de Lenclos: The joy of...

Ninon de Lenclos: The joy of...

The joy of the mind is the measure of its strength.

Source: Correspondence...

More about this quote

Daphne DuMaurier: She could not...

Daphne DuMaurier: She could not...

She could not separate success from peace of mind. The two must go together.

More about this quote

Judith Krantz: Billy thought privately...

Judith Krantz: Billy thought privately...

Billy thought privately that the rich are different only because people treat them as if they were. Sometimes she...

More about this quote

Nancy Mitford: I love children,...

Nancy Mitford: I love children,...

I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.

More about this quote

Shirley Hazzard: It's a nervous...

Shirley Hazzard: It's a nervous...

It's a nervous work. The state that you need to write is the state that others are paying large sums to get rid...

More about this quote

Louisa May Alcott: Father asked us...

Louisa May Alcott: Father asked us...

Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never...

More about this quote

Pearl Buck: Because psychologists have...

Pearl Buck: Because psychologists have...

Because psychologists have been able to discover, exactly as in a slow-motion picture, the way the human creature...

More about this quote

Page 162 of 329


(C)2026 Quotable Women - All Rights Reserved.

Quotable Women
Harrisonburg, VA