Too suddenly did he contemn, despise, and misregard him; but too long thereafter, by an untimely and too late repentance, did he do penance for it.

You say very well, answered Epistemon, yet shall you never for all that induce me to believe that it can tend any way to the advantage or commodity of a man to take advice and counsel of a woman, namely, of such a woman, and the woman of such a country.

Truly I have found, quoth Panurge, a great deal of good in the counsel of women, chiefly in that of the old wives amongst them; for every time I consult with them I readily get a stool or two extraordinary, to the great solace of my bumgut passage.

They are as sleuthhounds in the infallibility of their scent, and in their sayings no less sententious than the rubrics of the law.
Therefore in my conceit it is not an improper kind of speech to call them sage or wise women.

In confirmation of which opinion of mine, the customary style of my language alloweth them the denomination of presage women.