Juana Ines De La Cruz Quotes & Sayings

The most daring flights of genius do not always soar assured when they seek a throne in the fire & find a grave in copious tears.
For knowledge is also a vice: if it is not constantly curbed, & if this is not acknowledged, the greater the havoc it wreaks;
& if the flight is not brought down, fed & fattened on subtleties it will forget the essential for the sake of the rare & strange.
If a skilled hand does not prevent the growth of a thickly leafed tree, its proliferating branches will steal the fruit. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Aristotle could have known so much more if he cooked. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Privation is the source of appetite. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

I was not yet three years old when my mother determined to send one of my elder sisters to learn to read at a school for girls we call the Amigas. Affection, and mischief, caused me to follow her, and when I observed how she was being taught her lessons I was so inflamed with the desire to know how to read, that deceiving
for so I knew it to be
the mistress, I told her that my mother had meant for me to have lessons too ... I learned so quickly that before my mother knew of it I could already read ... — Juana Ines De La Cruz

One will abide, and will confess that another is nobler than he, that another is richer, more handsome, and even that he is more learned, but that another is richer in reason scarcely any will confess: Rare is he who will concede genius. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

The matter to me was simple:
love for you was so strong,
I could see you in my soul
and talk to you all day long. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

And it is not enough in the world for a wise brain to be ridiculed, it must also be wounded & mistreated; a head that is a treasury of wisdom should not expect any crown other than one of thorns. What garland can human wisdom expect when it sees what divine wisdom received? — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Critics: In your sight
no woman can win:
keep you out, and she's too tight;
she's too loose if you get in. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Rare is he who will concede genius. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Must I dwell in slavery's night And all pleasure take its flight Far beyond my feeble sight, Forever? — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Who has forbidden women to engage in private and individual studies? Have they not a rational soul as men do? ... I have this inclination to study and if it is evil I am not the one who formed me thus - I was born with it and with it I shall die. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

O who is more to blame: He who sins for pay - Or he who pays for sin? — Juana Ines De La Cruz

The greater evil who is in-
When both in wayward paths are straying?
The poor sinner for the pain
Or he who pays for the sin? — Juana Ines De La Cruz

O world, why do you wish to persecute me? How do I offend you, when I intend only to fix beauty in my intellect, & never my intellect fix on beauty?
I do not set store by treasures or riches; & therefore it always brings me more joy only to fix riches in my intellect, & never my intellect fix on riches.
I do not set store by a lovely face that, vanquished, is civil plunder of the ages, & perfidious wealth has never pleased me,
for I deem it best, as one of my truths, to deplete the vanities of this life & never this life to deplete in vanities. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

I believed, when I entered this convent,
I was escaping from myself, but alas,
poor me, I brought myself with me! — Juana Ines De La Cruz

And what shall I tell you, lady, of the natural secrets I have discovered while cooking? And I often say, when observing these details: had Aristotle prepared victuals, he would have written more. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

In my opinion, better far it be To destroy vanity within my life Than to destroy my life in vanity. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

I walk beneath your pens, and am not what I truly am, but what you'd prefer to imagine me. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

One can perfectly well philosophize while cooking supper. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

In loss itself I find assuagement: having lost the treasure, I've nothing to fear. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

Everything that you receive is not measured according to its actual size, but, rather that of the receiving vessel. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

But, lady, as women, what wisdom may be ours if not the philosophies of the kitchen? Lupercio Leonardo spoke well when he said: 'how well one may philosophize when preparing dinner.' And I often say, when observing these trivial details: had Aristotle prepared vituals [sic], he would have written more. — Juana Ines De La Cruz

As love is union, it knows no extremes of distance. — Juana Ines De La Cruz