Quote#Truth
It is usual for a woman, even though she may ardently desire to give…
Quote byStefan Zweig · 1881–1942
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1922).
English (original)
It is usual for a woman, even though she may ardently desire to give herself to a man, to feign reluctance, to simulate alarm or indignation. She must be brought to consent by urgent pleading, by lies, adjurations, and promises. I know that only professional prostitutes are accustomed to answer such an invitation with a perfectly frank assent — prostitutes, or simple-minded, immature girls.
— Stefan Zweig
More from Stefan Zweig
Life is futile unless it be directed towards a definite goal.
Gratitude is a rare frame of mind; and those who are grateful can seldom find a way to express what they feel. They are overwhelmed by silence; are shamefaced; and, sometimes, actually try to hide their feelings.
For one who is having no personal experience, the passionate disquiet of others is at any rate a titillation of the nerves, like seeing a play or listening to music.
In times of exceptional stress, nature will often give people's behavior so tragical a complexion that neither a picture nor a verbal description is competent to represent its titanic energy.
Immanuel Kant lived with knowledge as with his lawfully wedded wife, slept with it in the same intellectual bed for forty years and begot an entire German race of philosophical systems.
Gratitude fills us with rejoicing, for it so rarely finds frank expression; delicacy of feeling warms our hearts.