Christine de Pizan Quotes

• Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it displeased them that women knew more than they did.

  Christine de Pizan

  Men, Foolish Man, Opinion

  Christine De Pizan (1982). “The Book of the City of Ladies”, New York : Persea Books

  56 Copy quote

• Once a man criticized my desire for knowledge by saying that it was not fitting for a woman to possess learning because there was so little of it. I replied that it was even less fitting for a man to possess ignorance because there was so much of it.

  Christine de Pizan

  Ignorance, Men, Desire

  86 Copy quote

• A woman with a mind is fit for any task.

  Christine de Pizan

  Mind, Tasks, Fit

  59 Copy quote

• Men who have slandered the opposite sex have usually known women who were cleverer and more virtuous than they are.

  Christine de Pizan

  Sex, Men, Opposites

  39 Copy quote

• The man or the woman in whom resides greater virtue is the higher; neither the loftiness nor the lowliness of a person lies in the body according to the sex, but in the perfection of conduct and virtues.

  Christine de Pizan

  Inspirational, Sex, Women

  Christine De Pizan (1982). “The Book of the City of Ladies”, New York : Persea Books

  71 Copy quote

• I considered myself most unfortunate because God had made me inhabit a female body in this world

  Christine de Pizan

  Female, World, Body

  Christine De Pizan (1982). “The Book of the City of Ladies”, New York : Persea Books

  30 Copy quote

• There Adam slept, and God formed the body of woman from one of his ribs, signifying that she should stand at his side as a companion and never lie at his feet like a slave, and also that he should love her as his own flesh.

  Christine de Pizan

  Lying, Feet, Ribs

  Christine De Pizan (1982). “The Book of the City of Ladies”, New York : Persea Books

  39 Copy quote

• If it were customary to send daughters to school like sons, and if they were then taught the natural sciences, they would learn as thoroughly and understand the subtleties of all the arts and sciences as well as sons.

  Christine de Pizan

  Education, Daughter, Art

  "The Book of the City of Ladies". Book by Christine de Pizan, transl. by Earl Jeffrey Richards, Part I, ch. 27, p. 63, 1983.

  26 Copy quote

• Condemning all women in order to help some misguided men get over their foolish behaviour is tantamount to denouncing fire, which is a vital and beneficial element, just because some people are burnt by it, or to cursing water just because some people are drowned in it.

  Christine de Pizan

  Men, Fire, Order

  31 Copy quote

• Ah, child and youth, if you knew the bliss which resides in the taste of knowledge, and the evil and ugliness that lies in ignorance, how well you are advised to not complain of the pain and labor of learning.

  Christine de Pizan

  Children, Pain, Lying

  36 Copy quote

• Just as women's bodies are softer than men's, so their understanding is sharper.

  Christine de Pizan

  Women, Understanding, Body

  26 Copy quote

• there is no fire without smoke but there is often smoke without fire.

  Christine de Pizan

  Fire, Smoke

  20 Copy quote

• Only the dead fail to reach out with both hands.

  Christine de Pizan

  Hands, Failing, Reach Out

  18 Copy quote

• Do not let the bread of the hungry mildew in your larder! Do not let moths eat the poor man's cloak. Do not store the shoes of the barefoot. Do not hoard the money of the needy. Things you possess in too great abundance belong to the poor and not to you. You are the thief who steals from God if you are able to help your neighbor and refuse to do it.

  Christine de Pizan

  Men, Shoes, Giving

  35 Copy quote

• If you would reflect well and wisely, you would realize that those events you regard as personal misfortunes have served a useful purpose even in this worldly life, and indeed have worked for your betterment.

  Christine de Pizan

  Worldly Life, Events, Purpose

  19 Copy quote

• I am ... troubled and grieved when men argue that many women want to be raped and that it does not bother them at all to be raped by men even when they verbally protest. It would be hard to believe that such great villainy is actually pleasant for them.

  Christine de Pizan

  Believe, Men, Doe

  41 Copy quote

• Those who plead their cause in the absence of an opponent can invent to their heart's content, can pontificate without taking into account the opposite point of view and keep the best arguments for themselves, for aggressors are always quick to attack those who have no means of defence.

  Christine de Pizan

  Heart, Mean, Views

  47 Copy quote

• The foolish rush to end their lives.
  Only the steadfast soul survives.

  Christine de Pizan

  Inspirational, Soul, Foolish

  18 Copy quote

• Poetry's object is truth.

  Christine de Pizan

  Poetry, Objects

  16 Copy quote

• Women particularly should concern themselves with peace because men by nature are more foolhardy and headstrong, and their overwhelming desire to avenge themselves prevents them from foreseeing the resulting dangers and terrors of war. But woman by nature is more gentle and circumspect. Therefore, if she has sufficient will and wisdom she can provide the best possible means to pacify man.

  Christine de Pizan

  War, Mean, Men

  23 Copy quote

• If it were customary to send little girls to school and teach them the same subjects as are taught to boys, they would learn just as fully and would understand the subtleties of all arts and sciences.

  Christine de Pizan

  Girl, Art, School

  19 Copy quote

• Yet if women are so flighty, fickle, changeable, susceptible, and inconstant (as some clerks would have us believe), why is it that their suitors have to resort to such trickery to have their way with them? And why don't women quickly succumb to them, without the need for all this skill and ingenuity in conquering them? For there is no need to go to war for a castle that is already captured.

  Christine de Pizan

  War, Believe, Skills

  18 Copy quote

• It is a deed of greater charity to give a bit of bread to the poor in the time of high prices and famine, than a whole loaf in the time of fertility and abundance.

  Christine de Pizan

  Giving, Charity, Deeds

  28 Copy quote

• If it has to be that wars and battles are begun for many reasons and quarrels, then they should also be avoided and shunned by better and more valid reasons.

  Christine de Pizan

  War, Battle, Reason

  19 Copy quote

• How many women are there ... who because of their husbands' harshness spend their weary lives in the bond of marriage in greater suffering than if they were slaves among the Saracens?

  Christine de Pizan

  Husband, Suffering, Slave

  Christine De Pizan (1982). “The Book of the City of Ladies”, New York : Persea Books

  16 Copy quote

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