Juana Ines De La Cruz Quotes

As love is union, it knows no extremes of distance.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Must I dwell in slavery's night And all pleasure take its flight Far beyond my feeble sight, Forever?

In loss itself I find assuagement: having lost the treasure, I've nothing to fear.

O who is more to blame: He who sins for pay - Or he who pays for sin?

One can perfectly well philosophize while cooking supper.

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.

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.

I walk beneath your pens, and am not what I truly am, but what you'd prefer to imagine me.

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.

Aristotle could have known so much more if he cooked.

Privation is the source of appetite.