The so-called "weaker sex" is devoted to many poems and songs, novels and short stories, and, of course, aphorisms. The ascetic Indian yogis, oriental sages and medieval monks allowed themselves to speak about the woman; Provencal poets and Renaissance titans admired her. She got "nuts" for her windiness and love for jewelry, she was considered the inventor of evil, the temptress and the destroyer of the human race. But her - Eve, Pandora, the Woman with a capital letter, her beloved and girlfriend - was appreciated, respected, revered. The “second floor” was not only exploited and suppressed, but also considered better and more perfect than the male one. Consider the most intelligent statements about women.
What they said about them in the Muslim East
It is generally accepted that Islam, Confucianism and Indian culture are contemptuous of the "weaker sex." Of course, such a perception of women is present there, but wasn’t European civilization misogynistic before feminism was born. Moreover, the most beautiful sayings about women belong to oriental poets. The queen in a love chess game, the most perfect creation of the Lord, burning hearts with raising an eyebrow - this is how Omar Khayyam speaks of the desired temptress. He repeatedly repeated that a woman has as much wisdom as in a book, but in either case, to understand what is written, one must be literate. The Bedouin Rudaki without his beloved in paradise wants to close his eyes so as not to see anything around. And the Afghan poet Jami didn’t even mind that the beauty called him a pesky dog, if only he would choose him among the others who were curious about her.
Sayings about a woman in ancient times
The ancient Greeks did not really value their beautiful friends. They kept them locked up, in a special department of the house - the gyneckey, and joked that the woman was good only twice in her life - on the marriage and on the death bed. They were afraid of their loved ones. Even Socrates claimed that attraction to female beauty was like poison, but more dangerous. After all, this poison is pleasant. And the Athenian tragedian Euripides advised never to believe women. Even if they are telling the truth. Most ancient Greek sages considered women unhappiness, a trap for men. Therefore, in order to appreciate the mind and beauty of the "weaker sex" in the ancient world, you need to turn to its representatives themselves. Sappho, a poetess from Lesbos, managed to sing women in the most amazing expressions as the ideal of beauty, mind and feelings. The cult of Aphrodite, which was professed in the circle of this amazing and wise Greek woman, gave rise to beautiful literary images of girls. Here is one of them, like a pink-capped moon, which, rising, eclipses all the stars, shines among others, making them invisible. Tender legs, a swan neck, marvelous curls, a mill similar to a golden flower - finer words on the female gender are difficult to find in Greek literature and philosophy.
The Art of Love and Troubadours
For the first time in Europe, a woman in Europe became the real queen of poetry. The creators of all countries - troubadours, truvers, minnesingers - vied with each other in praise of the inaccessible Lady, whose whims they rushed to fulfill at the first request. They have amazing sayings about a woman. A lady, beloved, is the highest being, which is the meaning of life for her courteous minister. The desire for it is not in possession, but in perfecting the soul and ideal relationships. The lady needs to be served, and only she decides how close her lover can come to her, and whether he is worthy of her attention. She is a real lady mistress, she is wise and beautiful. Inaccessible light, “love from afar” - these are the most ordinary words that were dedicated to loved ones. Interestingly, the ideal for men of that time was a married lady, not a girl, because, according to poets, she stands at a higher intellectual and spiritual level of development.
What do philosophers say?
Wise sayings about a woman appeared not so long ago. Philosophers, as a rule, were also convinced that the representative of the "second sex" could be smart, but not genius, and that the worst offense for her was to call her ugly. So thought even such bright heads as Kant and Hegel. But the closer to the present, the more critical the approach to a similar attitude to the female gender became. Samuel Johnson noted that, since the majority of people who write about the beautiful half of humanity are men, they attribute to it both their own misfortunes and the sorrows of the whole world. Some philosophers even surpass poets in their words about women. So, Max Weber noted that a man, of course, can be very eloquent. Even more than a woman. But he can never say as much as her eyes say, and he will never achieve such diversity.
Poets and writers about women
Who wrote the best about them? Of course, writers and skilfully versed poets who showed the world the most beautiful sayings about women. “Their intuitiveness and lightning-fast ability to guess is much more accurate than the self-confidence of men, ” said Rudyard Kipling. And Balzac said that a woman is much better and more devoted to love. She always hopes to the last, and in order to kill this faith, she needs to strike with a dagger more than once. And even then, a woman will love to the last drop of blood. Even Nietzsche, who was both a poet and a philosopher, gave the fair sex a few good words. Although he was known as a hater of the fair sex, he nevertheless agreed that the woman’s loving heart was ready for any sacrifice, and that everything else was of no value to him. And Leo Tolstoy reproaches men for demanding from their beloved so many all sorts of virtues that they themselves do not possess and which they do not deserve.
