Marie De Gournay Quotes & Sayings

Ignorance is the mother of presumption — Marie De Gournay

The most important quality of an inept person is to rely on popular belief and hearsay. — Marie De Gournay

Whoever is so stupid as to imagine God to be either masculine or feminine openly shows that he is as bad a philosopher as a theologian. — Marie De Gournay

Certain ancient cavilers have gone so far as to deny that the female sex, as opposed to the male sex, is made in the likeness of God, which likeness they must have taken to be, as far as I can tell, in the beard. — Marie De Gournay

If men pride themselves on the fact that Jesus Christ was born of their sex, the answer is that this was necessary for the sake of decency, for if he had been a woman, it would have been impossible for Jesus to go out at all hours of the day and the night and mingle with the crowds to convert them and to help and save mankind, without creating a scandal ... — Marie De Gournay

Happy are you, reader, if you do not belong to this sex to which all good is forbidden. — Marie De Gournay

Lucky are you, reader, if you happen not to be of that sex to whom it is forbidden all good things; to whom liberty is denied; to whom almost all virtues are denied; lucky are you if you are one of those who can be wise without its being a crime. — Marie De Gournay

The human animal ... is ... neither male nor female ... And if I am allowed to jest a little in passing, I have a joke that is not altogether irrelevant: nothing resembles a male cat on the windowsill more than a female cat. — Marie De Gournay