quotations about sex
"Sex" is a great, rich, complicated word. Metaphorically, it is a descriptive adjective that defines who we are; a noun that describes an endless array of people, places, and things; and a verb that conjures up activities that people all over the world find pleasurable. More than a word, it is a topic sentence for dissent and political posturing. It is a plot for complicated stories of interaction and intrigue, sometimes in our own families. It is a hypothesis for experimentation and curiosity. It is the grist of advertising copywriters, poets, and novelists. We desire sex, we deplore it, we regret it, or we do it, but whatever our stance, it remains on our minds.
SUSAN LIEBERMAN
Venus in Blue Jeans
As a person, therefore, would have no enjoyment of drinking, if he had not previously known thirst, so he who is unacquainted with the longings of love has no experience of the most ravishing pleasures.
XENOPHON
Hiero
It isn't premarital sex if you have no intention of getting married.
ANONYMOUS
We have inherited the term "sexual revolution" from those who first coined it in the 1960s, and in adopting their phrase we have perpetuated some of the confusions of that era. We continue to hear echoes of danger in the word "revolution." We continue to conflate very different impulses and outcomes. This received language to revolution has made it much more difficult for us to understand and discuss the roles and meanings of sex in contemporary America.
BETH BAILEY
Sex in the Heartland
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel
BLOODHOUND GANG
"The Bad Touch"
If sex is supposed to be satisfying and anxiety-free once we are safely ensconced in marriage, how come that's when many of us stop wanting it?
DAVID MORRIS SCHNARCH
Passionate Marriage
Sex makes you get real.
PAMELA ANDERSON
Playboy, July 1992
For married men, I think after a while they realize the morning's your best shot. You have a higher percentage in the morning. Well, there's a couple reasons. One--she can't say she's tired really. You know, but seriously. She's had eight hours sleep.... And also, in her mind, she's thinking I'm gonna shower anyway. But the best thing you have going for you is she can't really see you yet. She could squint you into Bruno Mars if she had to.
RAY ROMANO
The Ellen Show
We settle for so-so sex because most of us don't know how sexual we could be; we know only how sexual we are. How sexual we are has been shaped by decades of indoctrination by ... family and friends, teachers, religious leaders, and romantic partners, not to mention a society that worships a bewildering fusion of childlike sexual innocence and cynical, nihilistic hedonism.... So what is normal? It all depends on what's normal for you.
ANITA H. CLAYTON
Satisfaction: Women, Sex, and the Quest for Intimacy
It's been a long day. I need one of those hugs that turns into sex.
ANONYMOUS
Sex ... or lack thereof ... is at the center of everyone's identity, and once you've cracked someone's desires, you understand them in full.
ARIANNE COHEN
Marie Claire, March 2008
It's such a massive double edged sword. It makes no sense to me, and that's why I'm so outspoken about my sexuality. I think that women are entitled to sexual pleasure. I don't understand what is wrong with it. It's something that's good, and it makes you feel positive and happy and relieved. It's so funny because I watch these entertainment shows and they're talking about how Lindsay Lohan dates another man and she's a whore or whatever ... and a million other women. They lay into these girls because they're actually having a good time and being open about it. Then they do a report on George Clooney, who's a 'playboy' and looked up to by everybody and how sexy he is, and how he can date all these women and he'll never get married. It makes me want to vomit.
JENNA JAMESON
interview, May 17, 2007
Sex: the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.
JOHN BARRYMORE
attributed, The Quotable Intellectual: 1,417 Bon Mots, Ripostes, and Witticisms for Aspiring Academics, Armchair Philosophers ... And Anyone Else Who Wants to Sound Really Smart
I have always found the most vociferous guardians of morality on matters of sex are those who aren't getting any.
M.C. BEATON
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Sex is all the enchantment required. Do men find women so enchanting once the sex is taken out? Does anyone find anyone that enchanting unless they have sexual business with them? Who else are you enchanted by? Nobody.
PHILIP ROTH
The Dying Animal
Nothing was happening in my marriage. I nicknamed our water bed Lake Placid.
PHYLLIS DILLER
attributed, The Mammoth Book of Comic Quotes
Sex is God's joke on human beings.
BETTE DAVIS
attributed, Let's Talk about Sex: More Than 600 Quotes on the World's Oldest Obsession
The imagination of a eunuch dwells more and longer upon the material of love than that of man or woman ... supplying, so far as he can, by speculation, the place of pleasures he can no longer enjoy.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
journal, April 4, 1831
"Sex" is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other.
MARQUIS DE SADE
L'Histoire de Juliette
The earthly consummation of Love is either the passing bell that precedes and announces his funeral, or the trumpet that calls him to immortality.
RICHARD GARNETT
De Flagello Myrtes