Marie de France Quotes
"Be sure that you speak with unfeigned lips."
- Marie de France
"Great were the lamentation and the cry when the news of this mischance was noised about the city. Such a tumult of mourning was never before heard, for the whole city was moved."
- Marie de France
(Related: Mourning, News)
"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."
- Marie de France
(Related: Love)
"Fairest and dearest, your wrath and anger are more heavy than I can bear; but learn that I cannot tell what you wish me to say without sinning against my honour too grievously."
- Marie de France
(Related: Anger, Wrath)
"The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority."
- Marie de France
(Related: Authority, Past)
"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."
- Marie de France
(Related: Love, Truth, Loyalty, Measure, Sweetness, Word)
"Whosoever counts these Lays as fable, may be assured that I am not of his mind."
- Marie de France
(Related: May, Mind)
"He who would tell divers tales must know how to vary the tune."
- Marie de France
"The fool shouts loudly, thinking to impress the world."
- Marie de France
(Related: Fool, Thinking, World)
"Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name."
- Marie de France
(Related: Love, First, Name)
"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."
- Marie de France
(Related: Art, Knowledge, Reason, Will)
"If one of two lovers is loyal, and the other jealous and false, how may their friendship last, for Love is slain!"
- Marie de France
(Related: Friendship, Love, Lovers, May)
"I love no woman, for love is a serious business, not a jest."
- Marie de France
(Related: Love, Business, Jest, Woman)
"There are divers men who make a great show of loyalty, and pretend to such discretion in the hidden things they hear, that at the end folk come to put faith in them."
- Marie de France
(Related: Faith, Men, Discretion, End, Folk, Loyalty)