Intellect is to a woman's nature what her watch-spring skirt is to her dress
 Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860). copy citation

Context

“A real woman does a great many things without knowing why she does them; but these pattern machines mix up their intellects with everything they do, just like men. They can't help it, no doubt; but we can't help getting sick of them, either. Intellect is to a woman's nature what her watch-spring skirt is to her dress; it ought to underlie her silks and embroideries, but not to show itself too staringly on the outside.—You don't know, perhaps, but I will tell you; the brain is the palest of all the internal organs, and the heart the reddest.” source