In France, and at the most important period of our history, Catherine de' Medici has suffered more from popular error than any oth...er woman, unless it be Brunehaut or Frédégonde; while Marie de' Medici, whose every action was prejudicial to France, has escaped the disgrace that should cover her name.... Catherine de' Medici ... saved the throne of France, she maintained [the] Royal authority under circumstances to which more than one great prince would have succumbed. Face to face with such leaders of the factions and ambitions of the houses of Guise and of Bourbon as the two Cardinals de Lorraine and the two "Balafrès," the two Princes de Condé, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV, the Connétable de Montmorency, Calvin, the Colignys and Théodore de Bèze, she was forced to put forth the rarest fine qualities, the most essential gifts of statesmanship, under the fire of the Calvinist press.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For hym was levere have at his beddes heed, Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,... Of Aristotle and his philosophie, Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie: But al be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth, Inspired hath in every holt and heeth... The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye, (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
She was a worthy womman al hir lyve: Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde fyve,... Withouten oother compaignye in youthe, But thereof nedeth nat to speke as nowthe.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For out of olde feldes, as men seith, Cometh al this new corn fro yeer to yere;... And out of olde bokes, in good feith, Cometh al this newe science that men lere.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For which he wex a litel red for shame, Whan he the peple upon him herde cryen,... That to beholde it was a noble game, How sobreliche he caste doun his yen. Criseyda gan al his chere aspyen, And let so softe it in her herte sinke That to herself she seyde, "Who yaf me drinke?"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a social respect necessary in company: you may start your own subject of conversation with modesty, taking care, however,... de ne jamais parler de cordes dans la maison d'un pendu.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People... ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Et Saint Apollinaire, raide et ascétique, Vieille usine désaffectée de Dieu, tient encore... Dans ses pierres éecroulantes la forme précise de Byzance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »