- The more a body is organically developed, the more dreadful is the
decay. When grass rots, there is a fragrance. When an animal rots, it
stinks. A man's perdition is dreadful, more dreadful even than a
woman's. Is this a proof that man is superior to woman?

- . . . she is more sensate than man; for were she more spiritual she
could never have her culmination point in another. Spirit is the true
independent.

Of course every religious view, like every more profound philosophical
view, sees woman, despite this difference, as essentially identical with
man; but it is not foolish enough to forget for that reason the truth of
the difference, aesthetically and ethically understood.

- The whole plan of "A Thousand and One Nights" is very profound. This
battle between masculinity and femininity, the fact that femininity
conquers by means of her storytelling, her persuasiveness. In the future
the Sultan, who has discovered the basic unfaithfulness of all women,
intends to have every woman put to death after one single night. Then
Scheherazade offers to save the sex (since the Sultan demands one every
night it must end rather soon with the eradication of the women) and she
saves the sex by telling stories, which means: go with her and you can
never get rid of her. Fundamentally there is a terrible tenacity: No man
could go on living this way for three years facing the possibility of
death - but a woman can - if only she gets permission to tell stories. A
woman does not have the strength for a break or finds it difficult to
make such a decision, but she is able to conquer by means of your not
bein