Courtship Quotes

• Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascinations of her shape. It's your barn she's after.

  Hesiod

  Sweet, Talking, Fascination

  Hesiod (1991). “My Brother's Killer”, p.63, University of Michigan Press

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• The Greek epigram intimates that the force of love is not shown by the courting of beauty, but where the like desire is inflamed for one who is ill-favored.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love Is, Greek, Desire

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.115, Courier Corporation

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• See how the skilful lover spreads his toils.

  Benjamin Stillingfleet

  Toil, Lovers, Spread

  Benjamin Stillingfleet (1811). “Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet: Several of which Have Never Before Been Published ...”

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• A man is in no danger so long as he talks his love; but to write it is to impale himself on his own pothooks.

  Douglas William Jerrold

  Writing, Men, Long

  Douglas William Jerrold, Blanchard Jerrold (1859). “Specimens of Douglas Jerrold's wit: together with selections, chiefly from his contributions to journals, intended to illustrate his opinions”, p.48

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• It is your virtue, being men, to try;
  And it is ours, by virtue to deny.

  Michael Drayton

  Men, Trying, Being Me

  Michael Drayton (1753). “The Works of Michael Drayton, Esq”, p.265

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• Every man in the time of courtship and in the first entrance of marriage, puts on a behavior like my correspondent's holiday suit.

  Joseph Addison

  Holiday, Men, Firsts

  Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd”, p.217

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• I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like the state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Success, Business, Goal

  Letter to Ellen Terry, 28 Aug. 1896

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• Every man ought to be in love a few times in his life, and to have a smart attack of the fever. You are better for it when it is over: the better for your misfortune, if you endure it with a manly heart; how much the better for success, if you win it and a good wife into the bargain!

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Smart, Heart, Men

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1869). “The Book of Snobs: And, Sketches and Travels in London ; [Character Sketches]”, p.273

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• The pleasantest part of a man's life is generally that which passes in courtship, provided his passion be sincere, and the party beloved kind with discretion. Love, desire, hope, all the pleasing emotions of the soul, rise in the pursuit.

  Joseph Addison

  Party, Passion, Men

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1852). “The Spectator”, p.296

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• I knelt, and with the fervor of a lip unused to the cool breath of reason, told my love.

  Nathaniel Parker Willis

  Lips, Reason, Fervor

  Nathaniel Parker Willis (1829). “Fugitive Poetry”, p.48

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• A town, before it can be plundered and, deserted, must first be taken; and in this particular Venus has borrowed a law from her consort Mars. A woman that wishes to retain her suitor must keep him in the trenches; for this is a siege which the besieger never raises for want of supplies, since a feast is more fatal to love than a fast, and a surfeit than a starvation. Inanition may cause it to die a slow death, but repletion always destroys it by a sudden one.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Taken, Law, Wish

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• O days remember'd well! remember'd all!
  The bitter sweet, the honey and the gall;
  Those garden rambles in the silent night,
  Those trees so shady, and that moon se bright,
  That thickset alley by the arbor clos'd,
  That woodbine seat where we at last repos'd;
  And then the hopes that came and then were gone,
  Quick as the clouds beneath the moon past on.

  George Crabbe

  Sweet, Moon, Night

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• If insemination were the sole biological function of sex, it could be achieved far more economically in a few seconds of mounting and insertion. Indeed, the least social of mammals mate with scarcely more ceremony. The species that have evolved long-term bonds are also, by and large, the ones that rely on elaborate courtship rituals. . . . Love and sex do indeed go together.

  E. O. Wilson

  Love, Sex, Long

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• Either you have a rival or you don't. If you have one, you must please in order to be preferred to him, and if you don't you must still please-in order to avoid having one.

  Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

  Order, Rivals, Please

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• If fathers are sometimes sulky at the appearance of the destined son-in-law, is it not a fact that mothers become sentimental and, as it were, love their own loves over again.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Mother, Father, Son

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1859). “The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century”, p.144

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• When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Girl, Funny Inspirational

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• They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.

  Alexander Pope

  Funny, Marriage, Dream

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Dyce (1831). “Poetical Works”, p.284

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• Trust me--with women worth the being won,
  The softest lover ever best succeeds.

  Aaron Hill

  Succeed, Lovers, Trust Me

  Aaron Hill (1791). “Alzira: A Tragedy”, p.19

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• There is a rhythm to the ending of a marriage just like the rhythm of a courtship-only backward. You try to start again but get into blaming over and over. Finally you are both worn out, exhausted, hopeless. Then lawyers are called in to pick clean the corpses. The death has occurred much earlier.

  Erica Jong

  Marriage, Broken Heart, Divorce

  Erica Jong (1995). “How to Save Your Own Life”, N A L Trade

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• The bedfellows politics made are never strange. It only seems that way to those who have not watched the courtship.

  Marcel Achard

  Political, Politics, Way

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• It's hard to learn about your parents' courtship.

  Michael Reagan

  Parent, Hard

  Michael Reagan, Joe Hyams (1988). “On the outside looking in”, Zebra Books

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• Women are angels, wooing:
  Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing:
  That she beloved knows naught, that knows not this--
  Men prize the thing ungained more than it is.

  William Shakespeare

  Lying, Angel, Men

  'Troilus And Cressida' (1602) act 1, sc. 2, l. [310]

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• The Ruffed Pandanga of Borneo and Rotherham spreads out his feathers in his courtship dance and imitates Winston Churchill and Tommy Cooper on one leg. The padanga is dying out because the female padanga doesn't take it too seriously.

  Mike Harding

  Humorous, Dying, Female

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• I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration.

  Washington Irving

  Heart, Matter, Admiration

  Washington Irving (1834). “The Complete Works of Washington Irving in One Volume”, p.337

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• It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.

  Khalil Gibran

  Love, Spiritual, Emotional

  Khalil Gibran (2007). “Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces”

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