Langland Quotes & Sayings

Knowing demands the organ fitted to the object. — Plotinus

one might argue that the Mandeville author's original deception was not a simple trick for its own sake, but rather that it allowed him the freedom to speak his mind in a society that did not encourage such expression: to critique the moral state of his fellow Christians through an unusually open-minded presentation of the sectarian Christian and non-Christian world beyond Latin Christendom,2 an open-mindedness extended to nearly every group except the Jews and some nomads like the Bedouins. If so, the deception can be considered akin to the sort of literary device used by his near contemporary, William Langland, who, to obtain similar critical freedom, couched his impassioned critique of Christendom in an allegorical dream vision called Piers Plowman (five of whose some fifty surviving copies are bound with TBJM, suggesting that they have concerns in common).3 — Iain Macleod Higgins

Whoever said dogs can't speak was never interested in learning another language. — Mark Winik

If I loved you, well that's my fault — Conor Oberst

Like father, like son: every good tree maketh good fruits. — William Langland

First impressions of mediaeval life are usually coloured by the courtly romances of Malory and his later refiners. Chaucer brings us down to reality, but his people belong to a prosperous middle-class world, on holiday and in holiday mood. Piers Plowman stands alone as a revelation of the ignorance and misery of the lower classes, whose multiplied grievances came to a head in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. — William Langland

Who will bell the cat? — William Langland

Lilith chuckled, fondly remembering the bitter and heated arguments when the other princes had first confronted Orcus. Those had been the days! She had to admit, completely obliterating one's enemy was not as satisfying as one might think. It rather left a void in one's daily life. Her current enemies were so much less interesting. — J.L. Langland

I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth,But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre. — William Langland

And what a tree took away a tree shall restore — William Langland

We need to practice for 10000 hours — Sunday Adelaja

Love occupies a vast space in a woman's thoughts, but fills a small portion in a man's life. — Maria Edgeworth

A fair feeld ful of folk fond I ther bitwene -Of alle manere of men, the meene and the riche,Werchynge and wandrynge as the world asketh. — William Langland

The Spirit of Justice is the single most important seed Piers planted; if you don't live by its teaching, your chance of salvation is nil. Unless Conscience and the Cardinal Virtues form the food that people live on, just take my word for it, they're utterly lost - every single living soul among them! — William Langland

Wait! Wait!" The beggar called out from behind her. "I can see! I'm healthy!" Hilda smiled to herself, pleased. "You just took away my livelihood! Do you have any idea how hard it is out here for a healthy beggar?" The man sounded almost angry. — J.L. Langland

I love the smell of a real Christmas tree - also, my mum's Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. — Mallory Jansen

Pearl introduces an original story, in a form which was to become one of the most frequent in mediaeval literature, the dream-vision. Authors like Chaucer and Langland use this form, in which the narrator describes another world - usually a heavenly paradise - which is compared with the earthly human world. In Pearl, the narrator sees his daughter who died in infancy, 'the ground of all my bliss'. She now has a kind of perfect knowledge, which her father can never comprehend. The whole poem underlines the divide between human comprehension and perfection; these lines show the gap between possible perfection and fallen humanity which, thematically, anticipate many literary examinations of man's fall, the most well known being Milton's late Renaissance epic, Paradise Lost. — Ronald Carter

Whenever I read the psalms, I feel like I am eavesdropping on a saint having a personal conversation with God. — R.C. Sproul

For if hevene be on this erthe, and ese to any soule,It is in cloistre or in scole. — William Langland

In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne, I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were, In habite an heremite unholy of werkes, Went wide in this world wondres to here. — William Langland

There smites nothing so sharp, nor smelleth so sour as shame. — William Langland

I'm more of a handbag girl; my guilty pleasure is bags. I don't even have a clue how many I own. — Poppy Delevingne

Al the povere peple tho pescoddes fetten; Benes and baken apples thei broghte in hir lappe, Chibolles and chervelles and ripe chiries manye, And profrede Piers this present to plese with Hunger. — William Langland

The more trust you develop in your body, the more trust you develop in your deeper self. — Stephen Russell

But all the wickedness in the world which man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea. — William Langland

Keep that hate alive in your heart, lad. It'll warm you when nothing else will. — Brian Keene

If at first you don't succeed, take the tax loss. — Kirk Kirkpatrick

Manye chapeleyns arn chaste, ac charite is aweye; Are none hardere than hii whan hii ben avaunced: Unkynde to hire kyn and to alle Cristene, Chewen hire charite and chiden after moore - Swich chastite withouten charite worth cheyned in helle. — William Langland

For hevene myghte nat holden it, so was it hevy of hymself,Til it hadde of the erthe eten his fille.And whan it hadde of this fold flessh and blood taken,Was nevere leef upon lynde lighter therafter,And portatif and persaunt as the point of a nedle,That myghte noon armure it lette ne none heighe walles.Forthi is love ledere of the Lordes folk of hevene,And a meene, as the mair is, [inmiddes] the kyng and the commune. — William Langland