love, the woman chooses and entrenches her position; the
man has to act on the offensive. But

Only emotion can cope with emotion; reason but beats the air. Wherefore,

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
f