It is a deed of greater charity to give a bit of bread to the poor in the time of high prices and famine, than a whole loaf in the time of fertility and abundance.

A woman with a mind is fit for any task.

I considered myself most unfortunate because God had made me inhabit a female body in this world

Just as women's bodies are softer than men's, so their understanding is sharper.

If it has to be that wars and battles are begun for many reasons and quarrels, then they should also be avoided and shunned by better and more valid reasons.

Only the dead fail to reach out with both hands.

there is no fire without smoke but there is often smoke without fire.

The foolish rush to end their lives. Only the steadfast soul survives.

How many women are there ... who because of their husbands' harshness spend their weary lives in the bond of marriage in greater suffering than if they were slaves among the Saracens?

Poetry's object is truth.

Does a rake deserve to possess anything of worth, since he chases everything in skirts and then imagines he can successfully hide his shame by slandering [women in general]?

When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

She was so beautiful I had to move away.

Our life is a one way journey

With each sunrise we start anew.

It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words.

In those days, we finally chose to walk like giants and hold the world in arms grown strong with love And there may be many things we forget in the days to come, But this will not be one of them.

Words sing. They hurt. They teach. They sanctify. They were man's first, immeasurable feat of magic. They liberated us from ignorance and our barbarous past.

I'd rather be onstage with a pig - a duet with Jennifer Lopez and me just ain't going to happen.

This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to do that before he can fly.