There is something canine in the masculine nature:  like a dog over a bone, it snarls at the very approach of a rival.

* * *

It is curious, but it is true, that proud man becomes prouder (and—­more curious still—­at the same time humbler) when weak woman gives him something—­a look a smile, a locket, her hair, a kiss, herself.

* * *

The greater a man’s faith in himself, the greater his mistress hers in him.  And perhaps, the greater his mistress her faith in a man, the greater his in himself.  For

A woman’s faith in a man works wonders.

* * *

A man to whom a woman cannot look up, she cannot love.  Yet,

It is marvelous how a woman contrives to find something to look up to in a man.

* * *

Many men forget the artistic tendency of the feminine temperament, a tendency which shows itself in many ways—­their love of pretty things, of pretty ways, and of pretty words.  From which three alone we may deduce the rule that

When with the woman he admires and whose admiration he seeks, a man cannot be too careful of his dress, his speech, and his manners.

* * *

A believer in Woman is a believer in Good.  And vice versa, and mutatis mutandis.

* * *

Man’s standard of value of a woman is usually determined by the scale of his own emotions.  That is to say,

The pedestal upon which a man places a woman (a man always puts a woman upon a pedestal) is a pedestal erected solely by the effect upon himself of her charms.

* * *

A man may boast himself invincible by men; never by woman.

* * * The lady-killer is always an object of attraction to ladies, even to those whom he makes no attempt to slay.

* * *

It may perhaps be a thing as unreasonable as certainly it is indisputable, that however much wild oats a man may himself sow, he invariably entertains a very peculiar objection to any woman near or dear to him entering upon this particular branch of agriculture.

* * *

He is a fool who does not bear himself before his lady-love as a prince among men.

* * *

Some men are so gallant that they will never be outdone by the woman who encourages them.  But it often leads to strange embarrassments and entanglements.

* * *

Few things terrify a man more than the knowledge of a woman’s ability to make her emotions—­when, if ever, he arrives at it.

* * *

That is a very silly man who thing she can play one woman off against another.  For

In matters of emotional finesse the masculine instance is nowhere:  it is blinded, befogged, befooled at every turn.

Heaven help the man who is dragged into a quarrel between two wrathful ladies!

* * *

Three things there be—­nay, four—­which man can never be sure, how a greatsoever his acumen, his astuteness, or his zeal:  a woman; a race horse; a patent; and the money-market.  They defy both faith and fate; they should be the recreations not the resources of life; and he is a fool who stakes more than a portion of his substance on any one of them.