| C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917. | | | | Prudery |
| | | Prudery is the bastard child of virtue. Ouida. | 1 |
| Prudery is the hypocrisy of modesty. Massias. | 2 |
| Prudery is ignorance. Goldsmith. | 3 |
| Over-niceness may be under-niceness. Richardson. | 4 |
| Some women don buckler and spear to fight dragons which have no existence. F. A. Durivage. | 5 |
| There are no greater prudes than those women who have some secret to hide. George Sand. | 6 |
| Prudery is the innocence of the viciousexternal sanctity, assumed as a cover for internal laxity. Chatfield. | 7 |
| Prudery is often immodestly modest; its habit is to multiply sentinels in proportion as the fortress is less threatened. G. D. Prentice. | 8 |
| That prudery which survives youth and beauty resembles a scarecrow left in the fields after harvest. J. Petit-Senn. | 9 |
| A jest that makes a virtuous woman only smile often frightens away a prude; but when real danger forces the former to flee, the latter advances. Laténa. | 10 |
| | Yon ancient prude, whose witherd features show |
| She might be young some forty years ago, |
| Her elbows piniond close upon her hips, |
| Her head erect, her fan upon her lips, |
| Her eyebrows archd, her eyes both gone astray |
| To watch yon amorous couple in their play, |
| With bony and unkerchiefd neck defies |
| The rude inclemency of wintry skies, |
| And sails, with lappet-head and mincing airs, |
| Duly at chink of bell to morning prayers. |
Cowper. | 11 | | |
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