Qui ne voudrait pas rester persuade que ces femmes sont vertueuses? Ne sont-elles pas la fleur du pays? Ne sont-elles pas toutes verdissantes, ravissantes, etourdissantes de beaute, de jeunesse, de vie et d'amour? Croire a leur vertu est une espece de religion sociale; car elles sont l'ornement du monde et font la gloire de la France.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Who wouldn’t be convinced of women’s virtue? They are the country’s flower, verdant, lovely, and a social religion of beauty, youth, life, and love; they ornament the world and bring glory to France.
- In plain terms
- Women are praised as virtuous, beautiful symbols of national pride.
- What can you take from it?
- Idealizing women as symbols can reduce them to decorative roles.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does this view affect women’s real opportunities?
- Can patriotism coexist with gender equality?
Another view
Such rhetoric can ignore real struggles and diversity among women.
More from Honore de Balzac
Il y a des femmes dont la grossesse fait sourire quelque celibataire sournois.
Permalink to quote #20 Flaner est une science, c'est la gastronomie de l'?il. Se promener, c'est vegeter; flaner, c'est vivre... Flaner, c'est jouir, c'est recueillir des traits d'es…
Permalink to quote #22 Le mariage est un combat a outrage avant lequel les deux epoux demandent au ciel sa benediction, parce que s'aimer toujours est la plus temeraire des entrepris…
Permalink to quote #19
Related quotes
Well, it's a gloomy rainy old day to be here in London, but it could be worse, I could be in Saudi Arabia where men are men, and women are cattle.
Pat CondellPat Condell quote #5 No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.
Bertrand RussellBertrand Russell quote #11 The Nazis hated culture itself, because it is essentially international and therefore subversive of nationalism. What they called Nazi culture was a local, per…
Christopher IsherwoodChristopher Isherwood quote #14