Quotes from Heloise

Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate, whereas goodness is the result of one's own merits.

The name of mistress instead of wife would be dearer and more honourable for me, only love given freely, rather than the constriction of the marriage tie, is of significance to an ideal relationship.

I am convinced by a sad experience that it is natural to avoid those to whom we have been too much obliged, and that uncommon generosity causes neglect rather than gratitude.

We fluctuate long between love and hatred before we can arrive at tranquillity.

What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart....

Pleasures tasted sparingly and with difficulty have always a higher relish, whilst everything that is easy and common grows stale and insipid.

God knows I never sought anything in you except yourself. I wanted simply you, nothing of yours.

It is always some consolation in sorrow to feel that it is shared, and any burden laid on several is carried more lightly or removed.

I]t is not by being richer or more powerful that a man becomes better; one is a matter of fortune, the other of virtue. Nor should she deem herself other than venal who weds a rich man rather than a poor, and desires more things in her husband than himself. Assuredly, whomsoever this concupiscence leads into marriage deserves payment rather than affection.

Would that thy love, beloved, had less trust in me, that it might be more anxious!

Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate, whereas goodness is the result of one's own merits.