Quotation Listing

Browse by source: Select source... Pierre AbelardAlfred the GreatDante AlighieriThomas AquinasGeoffrey ChaucerNicetas ChoniatesEinhardKing EthelbertVenantius FortunatusEmperor Frederick IIJohn GowerGregory the GreatHeloiseKing Henry IIIsidore of SevilleEmperor JustinianThomas a KempisHenry KnightonRamon LullMagna CartaBattle of Maldon SagaSir Thomas MaloryWilliam OccamChristine de PisanRobert the MonkJohn of SalisburyAnonymous StudentGregory of ToursJacques de VitryGerald of WalesWalter of Guisborough

Gerald of Wales

• In order to reduce and cure, as far as possible, this natural tendency and defect, he waged a continual war, so to speak, with his own belly by taking immoderate exercise.
  - Gerald of Wales, Description of Henry II
  Source: The Past Speaks: Sources and Problems in English History. Lacey Baldwin Smith and Jean Reeder Smith, Lexington, MA & Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993. 87.
  
  
• This seems to me a thing to be noticed that just as the men of [Ireland] are during this mortal life more prone to anger and revenge than any other race, so in eternal death the saints of this land that have been elevated by their merits are more vindictive than the saints of any other region.
  - Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland.
  Source: Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland. trans. John J. O'Meara, New York: Penguin Books, 1982. 91.
  
  
• There is a remarkable thing about swans. They teach us that the troubles of death should not grieve us; for in the very moment of dying they make a virtue of necessity and despise their sad fate in singing.
  - Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland
  Source: Wales, Gerald of (Giraldus Cambrensis). The History and Topography of Ireland. trans. John J. O'Meara, New York: Penguin Books, 1982. 45.