“It is always hazardous to express what one has to say indirectly and allusively.”

“Before I began research for this book I was not consciously aware that women were aggressive in indirect ways, that they gossiped and ostracized each other incessantly, and did not acknowledge their own envious and competitive feelings. I now understand that, in order to survive as a woman, among women, one must speak carefully, cautiously, neutrally, indirectly; one must pay careful attention to what more socially powerful women have to say before one speaks; one must learn how to flatter, manipulate, aree with, and appease them. And, if one is hurt or offended by another woman, one does not say so outright; one expresses it indirectly, by turning others against her.Of course, I refuse to learn these "girlish" lessons.”

“Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.”

“Always listen to what others has to say, but at last you are the one who should decide. ”

“I'll not listen to reason...Reason always means what some one else has got to say.”

“Never affirm, always allude: allusions are made to test the spirit and probe the heart.”