. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
Men cannot count, they do not know that two and two make four if women do not tell them so.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that men may rely on women for clarity and understanding in certain matters, highlighting gender-based perceptions of knowledge.
Gertrude Stein's quote reflects on the idea that societal roles and expectations often dictate what knowledge is considered valid or necessary. It implies that women's insights and contributions are essential for men to grasp certain truths, particularly those related to emotional or relational intelligence, underscoring the collaborative nature of understanding between genders.
Themes
GenderUnderstandingKnowledgeCollaborationRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about gender roles, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of women's contributions.
More from Gertrude Stein
All quotes βThe creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude SteinRead
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
Gertrude SteinRead
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
Gertrude SteinRead
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
Gertrude SteinRead
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Gertrude SteinRead
Similar quotes
Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.
Margaret MeadRead
Men are boys for such a long time and really don't start getting the great roles until they're in their mid-thirties. But then they've got a long time to do them, whereas for women, it's all about playing younger and younger and younger.
Cate BlanchettRead
There's an unconscious bias in our society: girls are wonderful; boys are terrible. And to be a boy, or young man, growing up, having to listen to all this, it must be painful.
Doris LessingRead
Women must tell men always that they are the strong ones. They are the big, the strong, the wonderful. In truth, women are the strong ones. It is just my opinion, I am not a professor.
Coco ChanelRead
I look young. I heard this said so often that it became irritating. I once worked as a babysitter for a woman who, the first time we met, said she didn't want somebody in high school. I was 22. Later, I realised that in certain places being female and looking 'young' meant it was more difficult to be taken seriously, so I turned to make-up.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
Woman" in the abstract is young, and, we assume, charming. As they get older they pass off the stage, somehow, into private ownership mostly, or out of it altogether.
Charlotte Perkins GilmanRead