The Book of the City of Ladies Quotes

The Book of the City of Ladies is by Christine de Pizan. She was one fo the first professional women writers, and this text is important in feminist literature. Here are a few quotes.

• "One day as I was sitting alone in my study surrounded by books on all kinds of subjects, devoting myself to literary studies, my usual habit, my mind dwelt at length on the weighty opinions of various authors whom I had studied for a long time. I looked up from my book, having decided to leave such subtle questions in peace and to relax by reading some light poetry. With this in mind, I searched for some small book. By chance a strange volume came into my hands, not one of my own, but one which had been given to me along with some others."
  - Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
  
  
• "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, The Book of the City of Ladies
  
  
• "there is nothing which so instructs a reasonable creature as the exercise and experience of many different things."
  - Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
  
  
• "Rest assured, dear friend, chaste ladies who live honestly take absolutely no pleasure in being raped. Indeed, rape is the greatest possible sorrow for them."
  - Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
  
  
• "But, just as I told you before, the fool sees his neighbor's peccadillo and fails to see his own enormous crime."
  - Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
  
  
• "Most excellent, revered, and honored princesses of France and of all lands, and all ladies and maidens, and, indeed, all women who have loved and do love and will love virtue and morality, as well as all who have died or who are now living or who are to come, rejoice and exult in our new City which, thanks to God, is already formed and almost finished and populated."
  - Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies