St. Thomas Aquinas was a highly influential Catholic thinker in the 13th century, a time when the Catholic Church held a lot of power over the politics of the day. While he was not overtly involved in politics, his ideas definitely would have been used to shape the laws of the day — and he didn't think so highly of women:

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence.

He was canonized soon after his death and still has numerous schools named after him, so I imagine that quotes like these aren't the most highly cited.

Martin Luther, the religious thinker whose philosophy may have had more effect on politics than anyone else before him, certainly revolutionized the Church — but he sure didn't revolutionize its thinking on women:

The word and works of God is quite clear, that women were made either to be wives or prostitutes.

I'm not sure exactly where he pulls that directly out of the words of God, but I'm sure that someone's done that research for him. And just as a bonus, Luther also said that "no gown worse becomes a woman than the desire to be wise." Almost sounds like something out of a Rush Limbaugh radio show, right?

If you know anything about King Henry VIII, it's probably that he had six wives and beheaded two of them — so you probably wouldn't expect him to be exactly the portrait of an old-school feminist. When he met his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, he had this to say about her:

You have sent me a Flanders mare.

He didn't behead Anne of Cleves, but he did talk loudly and publicly about how unattractive he found her — like a horse — and ended up divorcing her because of it.

Napoleon might have been a brilliant military mind — besides his whole Russia invasion — but he didn't have such an enlightened view on women's place in society:

Women are nothing but machines for producing children.

I guess he didn't need to specify "male children," because clearly in his mind, the female children would just become the next generation of machines. Apparently Joan of Arc didn't have such a lasting impact on French military thinking as one might have hoped.

Joseph Smith founded the Church of Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormon Church — a formidable force in American religion and politics. He had some pretty clear-cut views on the nature of women, and they weren't so complimentary:

The root of masculine is stronger, and of feminine weaker. The sun is a governing planet to certain planets, while the moon borrows her light from the sun, and is less or weaker.

If he did go with that planetary metaphor, though, it does more or less explain the polygamy thing.

Grover Cleveland was unique as president, because he was the only one to serve for two unconnected terms of office. He was not unique for his time concerning his thoughts on women, though:

Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.

Cleveland was a Democrat — shows you how times have changed.

Creepy doesn't even approach a description of who Hitler was as a person, but it's pretty apt for describing his thoughts on women:

A woman must be a cute, cuddly, naive little thing — tender, sweet, and stupid.

Cringing yet? Here's another:

A highly intelligent man should take a primitive woman. Imagine if on top of everything else, I had a woman who interfered with my work.

Just — ew.

While the Catholic Church has lost much of the power that it used to have, the Pope still has a role to play in world politics — for better or for worse. John Paul II commanded the respect of millions and still does, but he wasn't without his moments of misogyny:

Christ called as his Apostles only men. He did this in a totally free and sovereign way.

This is a creepy quote about the inferiority of women, cloaked as an undisputed historical fact. It's not an undisputed fact — the New Testament was put together long after Jesus' life — and yet a 20th century pope was still using it to propagate a belief that men were the superior sex.

While he was running for governor of Texas, candidate Clayton Williams caused a well-deserved stir by making a rape joke to a bunch of ranch hands on his ranch. Apparently they were having bad weather, and to lighten things up Williams made an analogy between bad weather and rape:

If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.

Luckily for humanity, he did not get a free pass for this, and he ended up losing the election even after apologizing and trying to play it off as not a "serious deal."

In all fairness, Dubya was not known to be the most eloquent speaker, and sometimes that came out in incredibly creepy ways. One of his "best" moments came during his 2004 reelection campaign, when he was talking about malpractice lawsuit reforms:

Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.

I'll just leave that there.

Oh, Paul Ryan, the wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to feminism and women's rights. The man who wants more time at home, but refuses to support policies that would grant that to everyone. He claims to be helping American families, while at the same time gunning towards a healthcare plan that would legitimately kill millions of people. On the one hand, he says this after a video comes out showing his presidential candidate bragging about sexual assault:

Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified.

But four years prior to that, in his own campaign for vice president, he had this to say about abortions in the case of rape:

The method of conception doesn't change the definition of life.

So, we're to be championed and revered, but in the end our bodies are really just incubators? Perhaps that's why he thinks women need championing — because as mere ovens of life, we can't champion ourselves. Women are to be respected as fellow human beings, Rep. Ryan. Acknowledging that would be your first step in the right direction.

There are no shortage of creepy historical quotes throughout the ages — but this is enough for now. Now it's time to turn to something more empowering — and just remember that we've progressed far enough to see all of these for what they are.