Skip to content

Diane de Poitiers Quotes

1500–1566

Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and courtier who wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and family's status.

Random Diane de Poitiers quote

13 quotes

Woman's intelligence is inferior to that of man; every woman who tries to deny it is working to prove it.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

Calumny is like base coin: many people who would not utter it, circulate it without scruple.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

To make a good enemy, take a friend: he knows where to strike.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

Beauty attracts, wit amuses, the heart retains.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

The years that a woman subtracts from her age are not lost: they are added to the ages of other women.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

It is a great pride to venture to be just simply oneself.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

You must be very religious to change your religion.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

What is a woman? One who creates happiness and consoles unhappiness.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

How can we venture to judge others when we have such a clear perception of all that they lack to judge us?

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

The most carefully brought up people are the first to feel the need for solitude, because they are those who put themselves out most for others.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

Les gens légers prennent légèrement les choses sérieuses et sérieusement les choses légères.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

It is always a naïveté to combat a resolution that a man has taken seriously. The probability is that each individual sees more clearly than others into his own affairs because he has given more time to consider them.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

Strong reasons cause us to take resolutions; weak ones stop us at the moment of execution. From afar every one would like to make a grand tour; and, on the eve of departure, many a one is hindered by fear of the cookery or the beds at the inns.

Selected Thoughts from the French (1913)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Diane de Poitiers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.