Marguerite of Navarre Quotes on Love
Marguerite of Navarre, also known as Marguerite of Angouleme, was a French Renaissance queen, poet, and religious philosopher, sister of Francis I of France and queen of Navarre, whose court at Nerac became one of the chief centers of French humanist and reform-minded thought in the first half of the sixteenth century. This page collects quotes attributed to Marguerite of Navarre on the topic of love, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
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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“I have heard much of these languishing lovers, but I never yet saw one of them die for love.”
First Day, Novel VIII (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 XII (trans. W. K. Kelly) -
“No one ever perfectly loved God who did not perfectly love some of his creatures in this world.”
Second Day, Novel XIX (trans. W. K. Kelly) | Variant translation by Samuel Putnam in Marguerite of Navarre (1935), p. 53: Never shall a man attain to the perfect love of God who has not loved to perfection some creature in this world. -
“Variant translation by Samuel Putnam in Marguerite of Navarre (1935), p. 53: Never shall a man attain to the perfect love of God who has not loved to perfection some creature in this world.”
No one ever perfectly loved God who did not perfectly love some of his creatures in this world.