Quotes by 17th-century Women

Some brains are barren grounds, that will not bring seed or fruit forth, unless they are well manured with the old wit which is raked from other writers and speakers.

Margaret Cavendish

When I behold the heavens as in their prime,
And then the earth (though old) still clad in green,
The stones and trees, insensible of time,
Nor age nor wrinkle on their front are seen

Anne Bradstreet

For certainly there cannot be a higher pleasure than to think that we love and are beloved by the most amiable and best Being.

It requires infinitely a greater genius to make love, than to make war.

Ninon de Lenclos

He that will live in this World, must be endu'd with the three rare Qualities of Dissimulation, Equivocation, and mental Reservation.

To marry for love were no reproachful thing if we did not see that of ten thousand couples that do it, hardly one can be brought for an example that it may be done and not repented afterwards...

Dorothy Osborne

Though we all day with care our work attend,
Such is our fate, we know not when 'twill end.
When evening's come, you homeward take your way;
We, till our work is done, are forced to stay.

Time has the same effect on the mind as on the face; the predominant passion and the strongest feature become more conspicuous from the others retiring.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Ingratitude calls forth reproaches as gratitude brings renewed kindnesses.

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal

Whoever of ye Whigs thinks I am to be Hecktor'd or frighted into a Complyance tho I am a woman, are mightely mistaken in me. I thank God I have a Soul above that, & am too much conserned for my reputation to do any thing to forfeit it.

Anne of Great Britain

Nul n'est content de sa fortune;
Ni mécontent de son esprit.

Antoinette du Ligier de la Garde Deshoulières

A Man that wants Money thinks none can be unhappy that has it...

Susannah Centlivre

The Cittie of New York is a pleasant, well compacted place, situated on a Commodius river which is a fine harbour for shipping.... I left New-York with no Little regrett...

Sarah Kemble Knight

Welcome, brave Hero, to this course Retreat,
Thou who excell'st whatever Rome call'd great;
Great as thou art, yet others of thy Name
Shall thee transcend in martial Acts and Fame.
Two shall their Names from Africa receive,
As Asia did to thee thy Glories give.

O my God, how true it is that we may have of Thy gifts and yet may be full of ourselves!

Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon

I shall I not equivocate, there is a meeting of men and women and there is a meeting only for women.

Anne Hutchinson

'Tis hard we should be by the men despised,
Yet kept from knowing what would make us prized;
Debarred from knowledge, banished from the schools,
And with the utmost industry bred fools.

Lady Mary Chudleigh

For truly in nature there are many operations that are far more than mechanical. Nature is not simply an organic body like a clock, which has no vital principle of motion in it; but it is a living body which has life and perception, which are much more exalted than a mere mechanism or a mechanical motion.

Anne Conway (philosopher)

In loss itself I find assuagement: having lost the treasure, I've nothing to fear.

Juana Inés de la Cruz

Pleasure and pain, the good and the bad, are so intermixed that we can not shun the one without depriving ourselves of the other.

Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon

As the Creator and Preserver of men, Thou art gloriously manifest; butO! how much more gloriously art Thou revealed as reconciling ungrateful enemies to Thyself by the blood of Thy eternal Son. Here Thy beneficence displays its brightest splendor; here Thou dost fully display Thy most magnificent titles; THE LORD, THE LORD GOD, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness. How unsearchable are Thy ways, and Thy paths past finding out!