Quotes by Noblewomen

Courage is as often the outcome of despair as of hope in the one case we have nothing to lose in the other everything to gain.

Diane de Poitiers

She was born in the year of our Lord only knows. The years that a woman subtracts from her age are not lost. They are added to other women's.

Diane de Poitiers

We only make a dupe of the friend whose advice we ask for we never tell him all and it is usually what we have left unsaid that decides our conduct.

Diane de Poitiers

I must shape my own coat according to my cloth, but it will not be after the fashion of this world, God willing, but fit for me.

Arbella Stuart

Fortune helps the intrepid and abandons the cowards. I am the daughter of a man who did not know of fear. Whatever may come, I am resolved to follow that course until death.

Caterina Sforza