Quotes from Marie de France

Be sure that you speak with unfeigned lips.

Whoever believes in a man is very foolish.

Whosoever counts these Lays as fable, may be assured that I am not of his mind.

The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority.

Being too consumed in fear all the time will result in poor quality of life

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.

Whoever believes in a man is very foolish.

Be sure that you speak with unfeigned lips.

Anyone who has received from God the gift of knowledge and true eloquence has a duty not to remain silent

For above all things Love means sweetness, and truth, and measure; yea, loyalty to the loved one and to your word.

Love is not honourable, unless it is based on equality.

The powerful man takes as his right the love he desires, if but for a night.

Qui Deus a duné esciënce e de parler bone eloquence, ne s'en deit taisir ne celer, ainz se deit voluntiers mustrer. Prologue des Lais.

But where is it written in the Gospel that we are instructed to hate anyone, however erroneous their beliefs might be?

L'amour est une blessure intérieure qui n'apparaît pas au-dehors.

I love no woman, for love is a serious business, not a jest.

But sweetly and discreetly love passes from person to person, from heart to heart, or it is nothing worth.

For what the lover would, that would the beloved; what she would ask of him that should he go before to grant. Without accord such as this, love is but a bond and a constraint.

We love what we should scorn if we were wiser.

Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name.

For above all things Love means sweetness, and truth, and measure; yea, loyalty to the loved one and to your word. And because of this I dare not meddle with so high a matter.

Whoever wants to tell a variety of stories ought to have a variety of beginnings.

Now will I rehearse before you a very ancient Breton Lay. As the tale was told to me, so, in turn, will I tell it over again, to the best of my art and knowledge. Hearken now to my story, its why and its reason.

The fool shouts loudly, thinking to impress the world.