Premodern World Quotes & Sayings

I want to drink from you're life force. — Truth Devour

Faithfully and strenuously you should resist the heretics in defense of the only true and life-giving faith, which the Church has received - the apostles and imparted to her sons. For the Lord of all gave to His apostles the power of the Gospel, through whom also we have known the truth, that is, the doctrine of the Son of God: to whom also did the Lord declare: 'He who hears you, hears Me; and he who despises you, despises Me, and Him who sent Me' (Lk. 10:16). — Pope Clement I

Since the rise of Islam, Jews had lived as a tolerated minority, or dhimmi, a status granted to Jews and Christians because they were monotheists. Despite a growing tendency in our own times to paint the premodern Islamic world as an Eden of religious tolerance in which Jews flourished, they always lived by the whims of fickle rulers and the mood of a hostile majority. In the eyes of that majority they were effete, lacking in honor, and powerless by definition, but as long as they accepted the supremacy of Muslims they were usually allowed to live and observe their faith and occasionally to prosper. — Matti Friedman

And then it happens, the most dreaded response in the world, more terse than any word, more withholding than a "no," and strictly verboten for someone as in love with language and me as you claim to be.

You: "K — Caroline Kepnes

Your whole life informs your eye. — Roger Deakins

Language is not a handmaiden to perception; it is perception; it gives shape to what would otherwise be inert and dead. — Stanley Fish

Washington likes to threaten the people over whom they exercise power. — Glenn Greenwald

The sergeant shrugged, not meeting Amon's eyes. ' ... You'll be shivering all right. Them Waterwalkers'll have you crying for your mommies.'
'I assume you're speaking from experience, sir?' Raisa asked. — Cinda Williams Chima

Pessimism is not only unwarranted, it is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think the cause is lost, it will be. No one works hard for a cause they think will lose. — Lawrence Reed

In my grandfather's premodern world, how he wanted to live was his choice, and the family's role was to make it possible. — Atul Gawande

Don't go getting offended my friend, I have much worse things to say to you.-Ad'Dam, Journey from Atremes — Riley Amos Westbrook