On the folly of women
“Since the male was born to be in charge of things, he has been given a tiny scruple more of reason, which he consults as best he can; and when, as has happened before, Jupiter came to me, I gave him some advice worthy of myself. I told him, that is, to join man with woman—a stupid animal and a clumsy one, but funny and endearing—so that through constant association her foolishness might temper and mollify his sullen male intelligence. For when Plato seems to make a question whether he should class women among rational beings or with brutes, all he meant to say was that their sex rejoices in unusual foolishness. And if a woman wants to be thought wise, that just shows that she’s doubly stupid, as if one should lead a bull, kicking and bellowing, into a beauty parlor. It’s the height of idiocy for anyone to deny nature, assume an artificial virtue, and throw one’s talent out of its proper orbit. Just as, according to the Greek proverb, ‘a monkey is always a monkey even if dressed in purple,’ so a woman is always a woman, that is, foolsih, whatever mask she puts on.”
Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, 19
