A wise man will neither oppose nor appeal to a woman through reason.

* * *

Who can penetrate to the motives of a woman’s coaxings?  Yet
Foolish is the man who questions the motives of a woman’s coaxings.  Yet

Not to be sure of a woman’s coaxings—­not upon this side Phlegethon is there a more poignant position.

* * *

In loving one woman a man believes in all women.  And

Not till a woman is loved are her finger-tips objects of devoutest worship.  On the other hand,

It cannot be said that in loving one man a woman believes in all men.  Which little distinction is proof, perhaps, that

Love blinds the eyes of men, but opens the eyes of women.  In other words,

Passion obfuscates man’s prevision; it does not obfuscate a woman’s.

Man gives the rein to passion or ere he knows whither it leads;

A woman gives the rein to passion only after she has found out whither it leads.  But when the goal is known, perhaps

Women are more implacable votaries of the Implacable Goddess than are men.  That is the say,

A woman keeps her head till she can give her heart, then she gives it utterly;

A man (perhaps because he has no heart) soon enough loses his head.  So,

Before the gift, a woman’s qualms exasperate the man;

After the gift, the man’s indifference exasperates the woman;

* * *

It is folly to think that love and friendship exhaust the varieties of human relationships:—­

The relationships between earthly souls are as complex and multiform as those between heavenly bodies.

In one thing does friendship excel love:  it is always reciprocal; one friend presupposes another.  Not so a lover.

Friendship is largely a masculine sentiment;—­except among schoolgirls.

The friendship that exists between a man and a woman should be called by another name.  It cannot be wholly Platonic (3); it need not be wholly Dantesque.  Yet women generally strive to make it the one; and men often try to make it the other.  And yet again,

How many women there be, would, if they could, transmute love into friendship!  That is to say,

Women regard a man’s friendship as a delicate flattery to themselves; yet they instinctively know, though they try hard to forget, that a man’s friendship for a woman is extremely likely to transcend the bounds of friendship.

If only friendship would keep within bounds!  How many women deceive themselves into thinking that were devoutly to be wished!  Yet probably, as a matter of fact,

The very woman who avers she regrets that your friendship is not mere Platonic, would resent the Platonism did it exist.  Possibly not every woman will understand this.  Assuredly no woman will admit it.  And yet,

It is impossible to conjecture in what an exchange of confidences may terminate:  it may be a kiss, or it may be a quarrel.  But