Quotes by 16th-century Women

Elizabeth I of England

Anne Boleyn

Mary, Queen of Scots

Catherine de' Medici

Lady Jane Grey

Mary I of England

Teresa of Ávila

Let the good service of well-deservers be never rewarded with loss. Let their thanks be such as may encourage more strivers for the like.

Elizabeth I of England

Like as the armed knight
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight,
And faith shall be my shield…
I am not she that list
My anchor to let fall,
For every drizzling mist
My ship substantial.

Sometimes force is able to exterminate the wicked customs of those that do not use reason and do not understand any argument without punishment.

Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba

Had I a husband or a house, and all that longs thereto
Myself could frame about to rouse as other women do,
But til some household cares me tie
My books and pen I will apply.

Isabella Whitney

The faith of the church must be tried by God's word, and not God's word by the church; neither yet my faith.

This day I bestowed too much time in the garden, and thereby was worse able to perform spiritual duties.

In this valley of tears we must expect much sorrow and little consolation.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal

When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying in my heart.

Mary I of England

Men are just like unlit lamps: in themselves they are no good for anything, but, when lit, they can be handy to have around the house.

I know I could enchain him with a smile:
And lead him captive with a gentle word,
I scorn my look should ever man beguile,
Or other speech, than meaning to afford.

Elizabeth Tanfield Cary

Oh, Death, rock me asleep,
Bring on my quiet rest,
Let pass my guiltless ghost
Out of my careful breast.

A false report, if believed during three days, may be of great service to a government.

Catherine de' Medici

You ought to make every effort to free yourselves even from venial sin, and to do what is most perfect.

Teresa of Ávila

Science conducts us, step by step, through the whole range of creation, until we arrive, at length, at God.

Margaret of Valois

Love, a child, is ever crying:
Please him and he straight is flying,
Give him, he the more is craving,
Never satisfied with having.

Lady Mary Wroth

But tonight I finally made the connection that change always strolled hand in hand with loss, with upheaval, and that I would always feel it keenly because in the end, I did not live under the same sky as most other people. (p179)

O Lord my God, I have trusted in thee;
O Jesu my dearest one, now set me free.
In prison's oppression, in sorrow's obsession,
I weary for thee.
With sighing and crying bowed down as dying,
I adore thee, I implore thee, set me free!

Mary, Queen of Scots

I am on the side of those who believe that vice comes from stupidity and consequently that the nearer one draws to wisdom the farther one gets from vice.

Marie de Gournay

The walks put on their summer liveries,
And all things else did hold like similes:
The trees with leaves, with fruits, with flowers clad,
Embrac'd each other, seeming to be glad.

We have all known ingratitude, ungrateful we have never been.

Diane de Poitiers

When one has one good day in the year, one is not wholly unfortunate.

Marguerite de Navarre