The Book of the City of Ladies Quotes

[No] connection in the world is as great or as strong as the great love which, through the will of God, Nature places between a man and a woman. (1.8.4)

And let us suppose that all sons were good, nevertheless one usually sees the daughters keep their fathers and mothers company more often than the sons, and the daughters visit them more, comfort t...

[She] had so lofty a heart that she did not deign to marry, nor did she desire that any man be at her side. (1.12.1)

Alas, God, why did You not let me be born in the world as a man, so that all my inclinations would be to serve You better, and so that I would not stray in anything and would be as perfect as a man...

I spoke these words to God in my lament and a great deal more for a very long time in sad reflection, and in my folly I considered myself most unfortunate because God had made me inhabit a female b...

And I finally decided that God formed a vile creature when He made woman. (1.1.1)

For example, just as is said, the great philosopher Aristotle had a very ugly body, with one eye lower than the other and with a strange face. (1.14.1)

[Synoppe] soundly revenged her mother by having all the inhabitants of the country where her mother was killed put to the sword, and she devastated the entire land, and along with this country, she...