Without Lifting A Finger

But the chief point was that he declared himself to be a scorner of women, and he waged continual war with them for trying, with their sensual allurement and their frivolity, to rob men of their virtue and their seriousness. As a Cynic, he was always pestering the women and girls with his unconventionalities; as an Epicurean, with erotic witticisms; and as a Stoic, he said rude things to them, but nevertheless, where three of them were gathered together, there he was always to be found.

I'm almost finished with Sentimental Education . I'm glad I've stuck it out--IMO it could be halved w/o losing too much--because the wind-up has caught my attention. Out of context--perhaps even "in"--this quote sounds a bit sexist, but I liked it all the same: The hearts of women are like little pieces of furniture wherein things are secreted, full of drawers fitted into each other; one hurts himself, breaks his nails in opening them, and then finds within only some withered flower, a few grains of dust--or emptiness!