Heloise Quotes
Heloise of Argenteuil was a 12th-century French nun, abbess, and philosopher, one of the most learned women of medieval Europe and an important early voice in the medieval Latin philosophical tradition. Her surviving Latin letters to her former lover and husband, the philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard, are masterpieces of Latin epistolary prose and develop a distinctive ethics of intention, friendship, and the relation of love to virtue. The quotes below are attributed to Heloise, organized by topic.
Heloise on Love
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Attributed to Heloise:
“I never sought anything in you but yourself.”
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Attributed to Heloise:
“I would have had no hesitation, God knows, in following you or going ahead at your bidding to the flames of hell.”
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Attributed to Heloise:
“How can a marriage be called holy when the partners are joined for the sake of money or power, not for love?”
Heloise on Virtue
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Attributed to Heloise:
“It is not the deed itself but the intention of the doer which makes the crime.”
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Attributed to Heloise:
“If we judge of the merit of acts according to the intention of the agent, then nothing can be more remote from praise or blame than the body.”