Marguerite of Navarre Quotes on Knowledge
Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549), sister of King Francis I and patron of the early French evangelical reform, gave Renaissance French letters two of its most accomplished philosophical works in the verse Mirror of the Sinful Soul (1531) and the unfinished collection of seventy-two stories now known as the Heptameron. The framework draws on the Pauline and Augustinian traditions and on contemporary evangelical humanism to defend a deeply interior conception of religious knowledge — the soul's recognition of its own unworthiness and its consequent dependence on grace — that the Heptameron stories pursue in the dialogical disputation of the courtly storytellers who comment on each tale.
Quotes
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Attributed to Marguerite of Navarre:
“Love is the great philosophical question, and every story is its commentary.”
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Attributed to Marguerite of Navarre:
“A queen who reads is more dangerous than a queen who only commands.”
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“First Day, Novel VIII (trans. W. K. Kelly)”
I have heard much of these languishing lovers, but I never yet saw one of them die for love. -
“Second Day, Novel XII (trans. W. K. Kelly)”
To me it seems much better to love a woman as a woman, than to make her one's idol, as many do. For my part, I am convinced that it is better to use than to abuse. -
“Second Day, Novel XIX (trans. W. K. Kelly)”
No one ever perfectly loved God who did not perfectly love some of his creatures in this world. -
“Un malheureux cherche l'autre.”
As two unhappy people often will, the one sought out the other. | Third Day, Novel XXI (trans. P. A. Chilton) | Variant translation: Misery loves company. -
“As two unhappy people often will, the one sought out the other.”
Un malheureux cherche l'autre. -
“Third Day, Novel XXI (trans. P. A. Chilton)”
Un malheureux cherche l'autre.