Marie de France Quotes

19 Sourced Quotes

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
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
In times gone by there lived a Count of Ponthieu, who loved chivalry and the pleasures of the world beyond measure, and moreover was a stout knight and a gallant gentleman

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

Marie de France
He who would tell divers tales must know how to vary the tune.

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

Marie de France
But Fortune, who never forgets her duty, turns her wheel suddenly.

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

Marie de France
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
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
Desire can blind us to the hazards of our enterprises.

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

Marie de France
Anyone who intends to present a new story must approach the problem in a new way and speak so persuasively that the tale brings pleasure to people.

Marie de France
The rich are never threatened by the poor — they do not notice them.

Marie de France
It is likewise with the proud, rich man: he will never have mercy on the poor man because of his hue or his cry, but if the poor man could wreak vengeance on him, then you would see the rich man bow.

Marie de France
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
It would be less dangerous for a man to court every lady in an entire land than for a lady to remove a single besotted lover from her skirts, for he will immediately attempt to strike back.

Marie de France
But he who does not let his infirmity be known can scarcely expect to receive a cure. Love is an invisible wound within the body, and, since it has its source in nature, it is a long-lasting ill.

Marie de France
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.

Marie de France