Reading was my first solitary vice (and led to all others). I read while I ate, I read in the loo, I read in the bath. When I was supposed to be sleeping, I was reading. Germaine Greer More Quotes by Germaine Greer More Quotes From Germaine Greer A woman is never so happy as when she is being wooed. Then she is mistress of all she surveys, the cynosure of all eyes, until that day of days when she sails down the aisle, a vision in white, lovely as the stefanotis she carries, borne translucent on her father's manly arm to be handed over to her new father-surrogate. If she is clever, and if her husband has the time and the resources, she will insist on being wooed all her life; more likely she will discover that marriage is not romantic, that husbands forget birthdays and aniversaries and seldom pay compliments, are often perfunctory. Germaine Greer marriage husband clever My knees have always been ugly. Germaine Greer ugly knees Consensus politics means that you cannot afford to give the many-headed beast, the public, anything to vote against, for voting against is what gargantuan pseudodemocracy has to come down to. Germaine Greer voting giving mean The element of heroic maleness had always been present in the concept of the artist as one who rides the winged horse above the clouds beyond the sight of lesser men, a concept seldom applied to those who worked with colours until the nineteenth century. When the inevitable question is asked, "Why are there no great women artists?" it is this dimension of art that is implied. The askers know little of art, but they know the seven wonders of the painting world. Germaine Greer horse men art Until women themselves reject stigma and refuse to feel shame for the way others treat them, they have no hope of achieving full human stature. Germaine Greer shame achieve way The first kiss ideally signals rapture, exchange of hearts, and imminent marriage. Otherwise it is a kiss that lies. All very crude and nonsensical, and yet it is the staple myth of hundreds of comics called 'Sweethearts,' 'Romantic Secrets' and so forth. The state induced by the kiss is actually self-induced, of course, for few lips are so gifted with electric and psychedelic possibilities. Germaine Greer kissing heart lying The sight of women talking together has always made men uneasy; nowadays it means rank subversion. Germaine Greer sight men mean War is the admission of defeat in the face of conflicting interests: by war the issue is left to chance, and the tacit assumption that the best man will win is not at all justified. It might equally be argued that the worst, the most unscrupulous man will win, although history will continue the absurd game by finding him after all the best man. Germaine Greer winning men war Love, love, love - all the wretched cant of it, masking egotism, lust, masochism, fantasy under a mythology of sentimental postures. Germaine Greer sexy lust love Most people die in improvised circumstances of harassment and confusion, whether in hospital or out of it. Germaine Greer confusion circumstances people If the next time our governments propose to make war on a helpless civilian population we were to uncover our grief and guilt instead of our anger, how much difference might we make? Germaine Greer differences grief war The real theater of the sex war is the domestic hearth. Germaine Greer real war sex The most unpardonable privilege that men enjoy is their magnanimity. Germaine Greer privilege enjoy men Kinkiness comes from low energy. It's the substitution of lechery for lust. Germaine Greer lechery energy lust If a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got? Germaine Greer know-how knows might Many a housewife staring at the back of her husband's newspaper, or listening to his breathing in bed is lonelier than any spinster in a rented room. Germaine Greer breathing husband listening Status ought not to be measured by a woman's ability to attract and snare a man. Germaine Greer snares ability men It is agreed that little girls should have a different physical education than little boys, but it is not admitted how much of the difference is counseled by the conviction that little girls should not look like little boys. Germaine Greer girl should-have boys Lovers who are free to go when they are restless always come back; lovers who are free to change remain interesting. The bitter animosity and obscenity of divorce is unknown where individuals have not become Siamese twins. Germaine Greer divorce lovers interesting So far it has been assumed that the only pregnancies which are aborted are accidental ones and the only foetuses destroyed those whose mothers could not bear the thought of their becoming children. In a just world this would be the case, but the world is far from just. Too many women are forced to abort by poverty, by their menfolk, by their parents. Poverty has many faces; it may be the poverty of the young, the unmarried, the student, the unemployed, the female or a combination of these. Germaine Greer mother pregnancy children
