Margaret of Valois quotes:
-
Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favouring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.
-
Excitement is the drunkenness of the spirits. Only calm waters reflect heaven in their bosom.
-
It is the same in love as in war; a fortress that parleys is half taken.
-
Gold adulterates one thing only,--the human heart.
-
Temptations, like misfortunes, are sent to test our moral strength.
-
There are few husbands whom the wife cannot win in the long run, by patience and love.
-
The woman who does not choose to love should cut the matter short at once, by holding out no hopes to her suitor.
-
The more hidden the venom, the more dangerous it is.
-
Adversity is solitary, while prosperity dwells in a crowd
-
Bashfulness is not becoming to maidenhood, though modesty always is.
-
Delicacy is the genuine tint of virtue.
-
Extreme concupiscence may be found under extreme austerity.
-
It is only the educated who can produce or appreciate high art.
-
Mistrust is the sure forerunner of hatred.
-
Prudence advises us to use our enemies as if one day they might be friends.
-
Servitude is inherent; we are all slaves to duty or to force.
-
No one perfectly loves God who does not perfectly love some of his creatures.
-
A woman of honor should never suspect another of things she would not do herself.
-
distrust ... is the beginning of hatred.
-
envy and hatred fascinate the eyes and never make them see things as they are.
-
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.
-
Have a care lest the wrinkles in the face extend to the heart.
-
I should rejoice if my pleasures were as pleasing to God as they are to myself.
-
Joy takes away from us the thoughts of our actions; sorrow it is that awakens the soul.
-
Science conducts us, step by step, through the whole range of creation, until we arrive, at length, at God.
-
The cup of joy is heaviest when empty.
-
There is in us more of the appearance of sense and virtue than of the reality.
-
There is no greater fool than the man who thinks himself wise; no one is wiser than he who suspects he is a fool.
-
We are always more disposed to laugh at nonsense than at genuine wit; because the nonsense is more agreeable to us, being more comfortable to our natures.
-
We shall all be perfectly virtuous when there is no longer any flesh on our bones.
-
Women suffer more from disappointment than men, because they have more of faith and are naturally more credulous.
-
There are women so hard to please that it would seem as if nothing less than an angel would suit them; and hence it comes that they often encounter devils.
-
Blushes cannot be counterfeited.