Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400)

"He was of sovereign in all eyes.
And though so much distinguished, he was wise
And in his bearing moderst as a maid.
He never yet a boorish thing had said
In all his life to any, come what might;
He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight."

• From The Canterbury Tales (Prologue) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated to modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).

Read out article about the life of Geoffrey Chaucer, HERE.

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Bede

Bede (673-735), speaking as the pagan High Priest Coifi, or another advisor of King Edwin of Northumbria (r. 616-633).

"Man appears on earth for a little while; but of what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing."

• From Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), Book 2, chapter 13, translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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General W. T. Sherman

General William T. Sherman (United States military leader, c. 1820-1891)

"Civil war was to be; and, now that it has come and gone, we can rest secure in the knowledge that as the chief cause, slavery, has been eradicated forever, it is not likely to come again."

• From The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (Chapter 1) by W. T. Sherman. (Renaissance Classics, 2012).

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Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu (10th and 11th century)

"You would be wiser to keep your own counsel and take things the way they really are."

• From Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji (Chapter 34), translated by Royall Tyler (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (Chinese strategist and philosopher, 6th-5th Century BCE)


"The wise general
     Is a Lord of Destiny;
     He holds the nation's
     Peace or Peril
     In his hands."

• From Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Chapter 2), translated by John Minford (Penguin Classics, 2009).

Read our biography about Sun Tzu, HERE.

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Cassius Dio

Cassius Dio (c. 163-235 CE)

"No army can overcome valour by sheer numbers."

• From Cassius Dio's The Roman History (Book 50), translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin Classics, 1987). Dio wrote this quote in a fictional battle-speech he crafted for Octavian, before covering the Battle of Actium (which occurred in 31 BCE).

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Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

"Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of truth, arises from the seemingly irrelevant."

• From Edgar Allan Poe's The Mystery of Marie Roget in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Works (JKL Classics, 2017).

Read about Edgar Allan Poe's rough early-adulthood, HERE and about his early career and marriage to his young cousin, Virginia Clemm, HERE.

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Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

"While it is desirable to secure what is good in the case of an individual, to do so in the case of a people or state is something finer and more sublime."

• From The Nicomachean Ethics (Book I, ii) by Aristotle, translated by J. A. K. Thomson (Penguin Classics, 2004).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400)

"Let's see who shall be first to tell a tale.
And as I hope to drink good wine and ale
I'll be your judge."

• From The Canterbury Tales (Prologue) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated to modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).

Read out article about the life of Geoffrey Chaucer, HERE.

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (French Writer, 1364-1430 CE)

"I tell you, the day that all men attain perfection, women will follow their example."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999).

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The Malleus Maleficarum

The Malleus Maleficarum (Written by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, c. 1487)

"It is also a matter of common experience that the tongue of one prudent man can subdue the wrangling of a multitude."

• From The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers (Dover Publications, 1971).

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Plato

Plato (c. 427-347 BCE)
"A moral person doesn't set himself up as superior to people who are like him, but only to people who are unlike him; an immoral person, on the other hand, sets himself up as superior to people who are like him as well as to people who are unlike him."

• From Plato's Republic (Chapter 1), translated by Robin Waterfield, 1994.

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Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960 CE)

"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

• From The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, translated by Justin O'Brien (Random House, 1983).

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Aristotle

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

"The end of medical science is health; of military science, victory; of economic science, wealth."

• From The Nicomachean Ethics (Book I, i) by Aristotle, translated by J. A. K. Thomson (Penguin Classics, 2004).

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Mo Tzu

Mo Tzu (Chinese philosopher and religious leader, c. 5th century)

"Even in the deep valleys, the broad forests, the dark and distant places where no one lives, you must not fail to act with sincerity, for the ghosts and spirits will see you even there!"

• From the Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1963).

Read our short biography of Mo Tzu, HERE.

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Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241 CE)

"These women are called valkyries. They are sent by Odin to every battle, where they choose which men are to die and they determine who has the victory."

• From The Prose Edda (Gylfaginning) by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock (Penguin Classics, 2005).

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Pope Gregory I

Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540-604)

"Raise the moral standards of your subjects by your own innocence of life, encouraging, warning, persuading, correcting, and showing them an example by your good deeds."

• From a letter from Pope Gregory I to King Ethelbert c. 601 in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene (Princess of the Byzantine Empire, 1083-1153)

"Blaming that which is blameless (a human characteristic which was after all familiar to Homer's Muse too) only serves to belittle noble deeds, and to subject to reproach those who do not deserve such."

• From The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, translated by E.R.A. Sewter, (Penguin Classics, 2009).

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Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (Sayings recorded through 6th-3rd Century BCE)

"Never move
     Except for gain;
Never deploy
     Except for victory;
Never fight
     Except in a crisis."

• From Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Chapter 12), translated by John Minford (Penguin Classics, 2009).

Read our biography about Sun Tzu, HERE.

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Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (150-215 CE)

"The sudden loss of control over one' composure, in the case of women, is called a giggle, the laugh of harlots, and in the case of men, a guffaw, the laughter of idle suitors, offensive to the ear."

• From "The Educator" by Clement of Alexandria, translated by Simon P. Wood (Catholic University Press of America, 1954).

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