Christine de Pizan Quotes

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.

Those who plead their cause in the absence of an opponent can invent to their heart's content, can pontificate without taking into account the opposite point of view and keep the best arguments for themselves, for aggressors are always quick to attack those who have no means of defence.

By nature man without woman can feel no joy. She is his mother, his sister, his loving friend. She is seldom his enemy.

These are my habits and the way I spend my life: studying literature.

... one could find plenty of intelligent women in the world if one were willing to look.

For you know that any evil spoken of women so generally only hurts those who say it, not women themselves.

[I]f you seek in every way to minimise my firm beliefs by your anti-feminist attacks, please recall that a small dagger or knife point can pierce a great, bulging sack and that a small fly can attack a great lion and speedily put him to flight.

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.