Christine de Pizan quotes

Christine de Pizan was a pioneering French writer and intellectual of the late Middle Ages. Her works championed the role of women in society and challenged prevailing gender stereotypes. She is remembered as one of the earliest feminist writers in European history. Here are 17 of her quotes:

The foolish rush to end their lives.
Only the steadfast soul survives. (Christine de Pizan)

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

Christine de Pizan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christine de Pizan

Does a rake deserve to possess anything of worth, since he chases everything in skirts and then imagines he can successfully hide his shame by slandering [women in general]?

Christine de Pizan

Alone am I, and alone I wish to be; Alone my sweet love has left me. Alone am I, without friend or mate, Alone am I, mournful and angry.

Christine de Pizan

[A] person whose head is bowed and whose eyes are heavy cannot look at the light. (Christine de Pizan)

A woman with a mind is fit for any task.

Christine de Pizan

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

Christine de Pizan

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

Christine de Pizan

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

For what would I be otherwise but sport, In love with one who does not care for me? I will hide pain in smiles, sooner than be The common talk. It is a bitter art To sing a happy song with a sad heart.

Christine de Pizan

As for those who state that it is thanks to a woman, the lady Eve, that man was expelled from paradise, my answer to them would be that man has gained far more through Mary than he ever lost through Eve.

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan - Image

Occupation: French Poet
Born: 1364
Died: 1430
Quotes count: 17
Wikipedia: Christine de Pizan

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