Medieval Quotes - Page 9

• Television is the Antichrist, and I can assure you after only three or four generations, people will no longer even know how to fart on their own and humans will return to medieval savagery and to the general state of imbecility that slugs overcame back in the Pleistocene era. Our world will not die as a result of the bomb...it will die of laughter, of banality, of making a joke of everything and a lousy joke at that.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  Laughter, Our World, People

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• In the Middle Ages, cathendrals and convents burned like tinder; imagining a medieval story without a fire is like imagining a World War II movie in the Pacific without a fighter plane shot down in flames.

  Umberto Eco

  War, Fire, Flames

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• with the breakdown of the medieval system, the gods of chaos, lunacy, and bad taste gained ascendancy.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Taste, Chaos, Dunces

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.41, LSU Press

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• Infuriatingly stupid analysts - especially people who called themselves Arabists, yet who seemed to know next to nothing about the reality of the Islamic world - wrote reams of commentary [after 9/11]. Their articles were all about Islam saving Aristotle and the zero, which medieval Muslim scholars had done more than eight hundred years ago; about Islam being a religion of peace and tolerance, not the slightest bit violent. These were fairy tales, nothing to do with the real world I knew.

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  Zero, Real, Stupid

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• Talk. I'll just wait' shall I? Because my mission to save this town is of no importance whatsoever next to your girl talk."- Myrnin "Oh, shut up, you medieval drama queen" - Claire

  Rachel Caine

  Girl, Queens, Drama

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• I read and I read; and I was like a medieval king, I had fallen in love with the picture long before I saw the reality.

  John Fowles

  Kings, Reality, Long

  John Fowles (1965). “The Magus”

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• Contemporary fantasists all bow politely to Lord Tennyson and Papa Tolkien, then step around them to go back to the original texts for inspiration--and there are a lot of those texts. We have King Arthur and his gang in English; we've got Siegfried and Brunhild in German; Charlemagne and Roland in French; El Cid in Spanish; Sigurd the Volsung in Icelandic; and assorted 'myghtiest Knights on lyfe' in a half-dozen other cultures. Without shame, we pillage medieval romance for all we're worth.

  David Eddings

  Kings, Inspiration, Knights

  David Eddings, Leigh Eddings (2007). “The Rivan Codex: Ancient Texts of THE BELGARIAD and THE MALLOREON”, p.6, Del Rey

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• I get fixated when I'm bleeding -- I can see why they went in for blood-letting in the medieval times because it makes you feel a bit better. When I cut myself, the drama of it calms me down.

  Russell Brand

  Drama, Cutting, Blood

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• I love historical movies. I want to make a violent medieval epic.

  Eli Roth

  Epic, Historical, Want

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• In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a character; there was nothing particularly new about this - death has featured in art and literature since medieval times, and for centuries we have had a fascination with the Grim Reaper.

  Terry Pratchett

  Art, Book, Character

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• I don’t know if I have any particular views about women in positions of power, though I do think it’s more difficult for women, particularly in a Medieval setting. They have the additional problem that they’re a woman and people don’t want them in a position of power in an essentially patriarchal society.

  George R. R. Martin

  Thinking, Views, Position Of Power

  "‘Game Of Thrones’ Author George R. R. Martin Answers Fans’ Questions Live" by Amy Lee, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 28, 2011.

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• I read a lot of poetry. All types of poetry, but mostly Catalan poetry, because I believe poetry is the essence of language. Reading the classics, be they medieval or contemporary, gives me a stylistic energy that I'm very interested in.

  Jaume Cabre

  Reading, Believe, Giving

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• If you were a medieval scholar reading a book, you knew that there was a reasonable likelihood you'd never see that particular text again, and so a high premium was placed on remembering what you read. You couldn't just pull a book off the shelf to consult it for a quote or an idea.

  Joshua Foer

  Book, Reading, Ideas

  Joshua Foer (2011). “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything”, p.104, Penguin

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• The ultimate binding element in the medieval order was subordination to the divine will and its earthly representatives, notably the pope.

  Irving Babbitt

  Order, Elements, Divine Will

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• The medieval ideas of the "wild wood" was like a cupboard into which they stuffed everything they were afraid of - Wodwose, Green Men, demons, strange creatures - and of course the most fearful thing of all- wild women and their sexuality!

  John Matthews

  Men, Strange, Demon

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• The judgement makes no sense at all. It exposes the country, Turkey, to ridicule. It would have been so much better if Ahmet Davotgulu had behaved like a medieval jester, but no such luck for poor Turkey. Its Prime Minister is not taken seriously by too many people.

  Tariq Ali

  Country, Taken, People

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Adam Smith actually took all his best ideas and lines from sources from medieval Persia. But one thing he doesn't take is the underlying assumption they have that the basis of a market is mutual aid.

  David Graeber

  Ideas, Lines, Assumption

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• If ever there was a slamming of the door in the face of constructive investigation, it is the word miracle. To a medieval peasant, a radio would have seemed like a miracle.

  Richard Dawkins

  Doors, Miracle, Faces

  "God vs. Science". Interview with David Van Biema, content.time.com. November 5, 2006.

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• I listen to a lot of medieval music.

  Grimes

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• Every European goes on the streets and sees medieval churches. Not if you live in Indianapolis. The most exciting letters I received were from people in places like that.

  Umberto Eco

  People, Church, Goes On

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• I decorated my house like a medieval gothic castle, European-style. Chandeliers and red velvet curtains. My bedroom is pink and black, my bathroom is totally Hello Kitty, I have a massive pink couch and a big antique gold cross.

  Avril Lavigne

  Motivational, House, Black

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• There are some examples of medieval kings who were terrible human beings but were nevertheless good kings.

  George R. R. Martin

  Kings, Example, Terrible

  "‘Game Of Thrones’ Author George R. R. Martin Answers Fans’ Questions Live" by Amy Lee, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 28, 2011.

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• A political convention is after all not a meeting of a corporation's board of directors; it is a fiesta, a carnival, a pig-rooting, horse-snorting, band-playing, voice-screaming medieval get-together of greed, practical lust, compromised idealism, career-advancement, meeting, feud, vendetta, conciliation, of rabble-rousers, fist fights (as it used to be), embraces, drunks (again as it used to be) and collective rivers of animal sweat.

  Norman Mailer

  Horse, Fear, Fighting

  Norman Mailer (1968). “The idol and the octopus: political writings, on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations”

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• The modern geography of the brain has a deliciously antiquated feel to it - rather like a medieval map with the known world encircled by terra incognito where monsters roam.

  David Bainbridge

  Brain, Monsters, World

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• In the West there has always been the attempt to try make the religious building, whether it's a Medieval or Renaissance church, an eternal object for the celebration of God. The material chosen, such as stone, brick, or concrete, is meant to eternally preserve what is inside.

  Tadao Ando

  Religious, Church, Trying

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