33 Quotes About Middle-ages

In our day the first interest of most men is business and after that sports; in medieval times the dominant interest was war and after that sports, but there was not too much difference since sports were warlike too.

Is is seldom possible to say of the medievals that they *always* did one thing and *never* another; they were marvelously inconsistent.

The fundamental challenge of ancient man was to be wise. The fundamental challenge of medieval man was to be holy. The fundamental challenge of modern man was to be effective. The fundamental challenge of contemporary man is not to be ridiculous.

Those who like to interpret historical facts symbolically may recognize in this the spirit of a specifically "modern" conception of the world which permits the subject to assert itself against the object as something independent and equal; whereas classical antiquity did not as yet permit the explicit formulation of this contrast; and whereas the Middle Ages believed the subject as well as the object to be submerged in a higher unity.

And so it was that the Poet, through an excess of theological refinement, was unable to satisfy his coarse carnal passion.

His was a lonely, unorthodox conviction that war was man's ultimate failure.

La plus belle comté est Flandre ; la plus belle duché, Milan ; le plus beau royaume, France.

How much easier it is to be poor than rich.

I know Verona as I do my own body.