beautiful mysterious exceptional women and plain ordinary men

“of course the mysterious, enchanting kitty could not love a plain fellow, such as he considered himself to be, a man so ordinary and undistinguished. […] he thought a plain kindly fellow like himself might be loved as a friend, but to be loved with the kind of love he felt for kitty, a man must be handsome, and above all remarkable.
he had heard that women often love plain ordinary men but he did not believe it, because he judged by himself and he could only love beautiful mysterious exceptional women.”
–from anna karenina by leo tolstoy
and another translation…
“the mysterious, enchanting kitty herself could not love such an ugly person as he conceived himself to be, and, above all, such an ordinary, in no way striking person. […] an ugly, good-natured man, as he considered himself, might, he supposed, be liked as a friend; but to be loved with such a love as that with which he loved kitty, one would need to be a handsome and, still more, a distinguished man.
he had heard that women often did care for ugly and ordinary men, but he did not believe it, for he judged by himself, and he could not himself have loved any but beautiful, mysterious, and exceptional women.”