Marguerite de Navarre

“Blushes cannot be counterfeited.”

“Bashfulness is not becoming to maidenhood, though modesty always is.”

“A woman of honor should not suspect another of things she would not do herself.”

“Love is a disease that kills nobody, but one whose time has come.”

“God has put into the heart of man love and the boldness to sue, and into the heart of woman fear and the courage to refuse.”

“There are women so hard to please that it seems as if nothing less than an angel will suit them: hence it comes that they often meet with devils.”

“Many weep for the sin, while they laugh over the pleasure.”

“Since love teaches how to trick the tricksters, how much reason have we to fear it — we who are poor simple creatures!”

“A woman of honor should never suspect another of things she would not do herself.”

“The true and the false speak the same language.”

“Pleasures are sins: we regret to offend God; but, then, pleasures please us.”

“In love, as in war, a fortress that parleys is half taken.”

“No one perfectly loves God who does not perfectly love some of his creatures.”

“It is difficult to repent of what gives us pleasure.”

“I confess I should be glad if my pleasures were as pleasing to God as they are to me: in that case, I should often find matter for rejoicing.”

“We shall all be perfectly virtuous when there is no longer any flesh on our bones.”

“Hypocrites are wicked: they hide their defects with so much care, that their hearts are poisoned by them.”

“Extreme concupiscence may be found under an extreme austerity.”

“The woman who does not choose to love should cut the matter short at once, by holding out no hopes to her suitor.”

“He who knows his incapacity, knows something.”