She is an English character. She's what they call in England 'a person'. She isn't a lady and she isn't a woman; she's a person. - Henry James, on his landlady's daughter

'Woman' must ever be a woman's highest name,
And honours more than 'Lady', if I know right. - Walther von der Vogelweide

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ('Santa Filomena', on Florence Nightingale)

The difference between white and black females seemed to me an eminently satisfactory one. White females were ladies, said the sign maker, worthy of respect. And the quality that made ladyhood worthy? Softness, helplessness, and modesty - which I interpreted as a willingness to let others to their labor and their thinking. Colored females, on the other hand, were women - unworthy of respect, independent and immodest. - Toni Morrison

Never educate a child to be a gentleman or lady only, but to be a man, a woman. - Herbert Spencer

I recall an acquaintance telling me that his wife, having advertised for domestic help, answered her doorbell and was greeted with the words, "Are you the woman that wants a lady to work for her?" - D.A. Nicholson, letter to Daily Telegraph 28 Feb 1979


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