Medieval Quotes

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”
― Meister Eckhart, Sermons of Meister Eckhart

“The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.”
― St. Thomas Aquinas

“People pretend not to like grapes when the vines are too high for them to reach.”
― Marguerite de Navarre

“There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages.”
― Richard Lederer, Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language

“The next time somebody announces that he plans to get Medieval on your ass, tell him you're going to get Renaissance on his gonads.”
― James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder

“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“No offense, Jaron, but I don't want your life. Even locked away behind closed doors I got a taste for how awful it can be."
"Did anyone try to kill you while I was gone?"
"No."
"Then you didn't even get a taste.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen

“Does it make you brave to stick your hand in a bear's mouth? Would you do it again just because you didn't die?”
― Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn

“And at that moment, a lilting melody lifts to the moon as a single sparrow sings.”
― Lisa Ann Sandell, Song of the Sparrow

“We are living in modern times throughout the world and yet are dominated by medieval minds.”
― Eqbal Ahmad, Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire

“How was she created? I'm not sure if you realize this, but it was in God's image. How can anybody dare to speak ill of something which bears such a noble imprint?”
― Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies

“Reason, you'll always be half-blind.”
― Marguerite Porete

“Do I perceive a softening in your heart for me, damoiselle?" He laughed at her scowl. "Beware maid. I will tell you true. After you will come another and then another. There are no strings that can tether me to any woman. So guard your heart."
"My lord, you greatly exaggerate your appeal," she replied indignantly. "If I fell anything for you, 'tis hatred. You are the enemy and you are to be despised as such."
"Indeed?" He smiled slowly into her eyes.
"Then tell me, damoiselle, do you always kiss the enemy so warmly?”
― Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, The Wolf and the Dove

“There was nothing medieval people liked better, or did better, than sorting out and tidying up. Of all our modern inventions I suspect that they would most have admired the card index.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature

“Discover how to visit the past and bring yesterday's stories into our lives today”
― Gillian Hovell, 'Visiting the Past'

“Popatrz jeno. Kościół, karczma, bordel, a w środku między nimi kupa gówna. Oto parabola ludzkiego żywota.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Narrenturm

“Whoever has received knowledge
and eloquence in speech from God
should not be silent or secretive
but demonstrate it willingly.
When a great good is widely heard of,
then, and only then, does it bloom,
and when that good is praised by man,
it has spread its blossoms.”
― Marie de France

“Those darling byegone times, Mr Carker,' said Cleopatra, 'with their delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful places of torture, and their romantic vengeances, and their picturesque assaults and sieges, and everything that makes life truly charming! How dreadfully we have degenerated!”
― Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son

“Theologians and other clerks,
You won't understand this book,
-- However bright your wits --
If you do not meet it humbly,
And in this way, Love and Faith
Make you surmount Reason, for
They are the protectors of Reason's house. ”
― Marguerite Porete

“In this martial world dominated by men, women had little place. The Church's teachings might underpin feudal morality, yet when it came to the practicalities of life, a ruthless pragmatism often came into play. Kings and noblemen married for political advantage, and women rarely had any say in how they or their wealth were to be disposed in marriage. Kings would sell off heiresses and rich widows to the highest bidder, for political or territorial advantage, and those who resisted were heavily fined.

Young girls of good birth were strictly reared, often in convents, and married off at fourteen or even earlier to suit their parents' or overlord's purposes. The betrothal of infants was not uncommon, despite the church's disapproval. It was a father's duty to bestow his daughters in marriage; if he was dead, his overlord or the King himself would act for him. Personal choice was rarely and issue.

Upon marriage, a girl's property and rights became invested in her husband, to whom she owed absolute obedience. Every husband had the right to enforce this duty in whichever way he thought fit--as Eleanor was to find out to her cost. Wife-beating was common, although the Church did at this time attempt to restrict the length of the rod that a husband might use.”
― Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

“Court life for a queen of France at that time was, however, stultifyingly routine. Eleanor found that she was expected to be no more than a decorative asset to her husband, the mother of his heirs and the arbiter of good taste and modesty.”
― Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

“Lying is a thriving vocation.”
― Susanna Centlivre

“I mean to take a good look at any man ere I leap into his arms.'
Then look your fill, and leap away.”
― Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth, Volume Three of Four by Charles Reade, Fiction, Classics

“I remember the fire, it burns bright, always around me. I close my eyes, and tears stream out. The tides of the past seize me, bear me out to sea.”
― Ned Hayes, Sinful Folk

“It is easy to understand that in the dreary middle ages the Aristotelian logic would be very acceptable to the controversial spirit of the schoolmen, which, in the absence of all real knowledge, spent its energy upon mere formulas and words, and that it would be eagerly adopted even in its mutilated Arabian form, and presently established as the centre of all knowledge.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1

“April comes to us, with her showers sweet. I wake to the cries of little birds before the light comes across the heath. They wait all night with open eyes. Now, with the rain at dawn, their voices make melody.
I turn back the reveled cloth of gold on my bed and walk to gaze beyond my glazed casement window. In the plaintive voices of the wood fowl, I imagine my mother calling to me, her words echoing across the years.”
― Ned Hayes, Sinful Folk

“Most of the tools from medieval times were extensions of the physical self. Tools are now extensions of the mental self.”
― Lotoya Peterson

“The fantastic graces of Chivalry lay upon the surface of life, but beneath it was a half-savage population, fierce and animal, with little ruth or mercy.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Nigel

“I cannot tell whether diamonds appeared in his eyes or mine as the shine of adoration became the icon one sees in history, a Byzantine sparkle, Medieval armor against all odds.”
― Alice Shapiro

“It seemed to me that, no matter what endeavor I was involved in, I was to be something of a sham.”
― Peter David, Sir Apropos of Nothing