There's nothing more paradoxical than the female mind, and you can never convince a woman of anything -- you have to arrange matters so that they convince themselves. The chain of reasoning they employ to overcome their own prejudices is extremely original, and if you want to master their dialect you have to turn all the textbook rules of logic upside-down. For example, a normal approach would be: 'This man loves me, but I'm married, so I mustn't love him.' But a woman's approach would be: 'I mustn't love him, because I'm married, but he loves me, so...' I have to use dots here, for now the voice of reason is silent, and it's mainly the tongue, eyes and heart (if there is one) which do all the talking.

If a woman ever chanes to read these notes there'll be outraged cries of 'Slander!'

Since poets began writing and women began reading them (for which our heartfelt thanks), they have been called angels so often that, in their simplicity, they've come to accept this compliment as truth. They forget that the same poets -- in return for money -- acclaimed Nero as a demigod.

...

Women should wish all men to know them as well as I do, for since I stopped fearing them and understood their petty weaknesses, I've loved them a hundred times more dearly.

- Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time

" Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well. "

- Thorton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey