Margaret of Navarre > Quotes

“People pretend not to like grapes when the vines are too high for them to reach.”
― Marguerite de Navarre

“A handsome young knight is madly in love with a princess, and she too is in love with him, though she seems not to be entirely aware of it. Despite the friendship that blossoms between them, or perhaps because of that very friendship, the young knight finds himself so humbled and speechless that he is totally unable to bring up the subject of his love. Until one day he asks the princess point-blank: Is it better to speak or to die?”
― Marguerite de Navarre, HEPTAMERON

“Is it better to speak or to die?”
― Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron

“For there’s nothing more foolish than a man who thinks he’s clever, and nothing more wise than the man who knows that he is nothing.”
― Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron

“No man hath it in his power to over-rule the deceitfulness of a woman.”
― Marguerite of Navarre

“I hold that if our love be based on the beauty, grace, love, and favour of a woman, and our purpose be pleasure, honour, or profit, such love cannot long endure; for when the foundation on which it rests is gone, the love itself departs from us. But I am firmly of opinion that he who loves with no other end or desire than to love well, will sooner yield up his soul in death than suffer his great love to leave his heart.”
― Marguerite de Navarre

“Si Dieu me nomme son enfant, faut-il craindre l'appeler Père ?”
― Marguerite de Navarre