Ivanhoe

Quotes

His features might have been called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house of his eye, that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates the cautious voluptuary.

Quoted on October 5, 2011

Wamba whispered to Gurth, 'If this be the habitation of a thief, it makes good the old proverb, The nearer the church the farther from God.'

Quoted on October 5, 2011

Holy Mother, said the monk, as he addressed the assembled knights, I am at last safe and in Christian keeping!

Safe thou art," replied De Bracy; "and for Christianity, here is the stout Baron Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, whose utter abomination is a Jew; and the good Knight Templar, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, whose trade is to slay Saracens—-If these are not good marks of Christianity, I know no other which they bear about them.

Quoted on October 5, 2011

I forgive you, Sir Knight,' said Rowena, 'as a Christian.

That means,' said Wamba, 'that she does not forgive him at all.

Quoted on October 5, 2011

Say not my art is fraud - all live by seeming .
The beggar begs with it, and the gay courtier
Gains land and title, rank and rule, by seeming;
The clergy scorn it not, and the bold soldier
Will eke with it his service.--All admit it,
All practise it; adn he who is content
With shewing what he is, shall have small credit
In church, or camp, or state--So wags the world.
-- Old Play

Quoted on October 5, 2011

Why,' said Wamba, 'an valour be so dull, you will please to learn, that those honest fellows balance a good deed with one not quite so laudable; as a crown given to a begging friar with an hundred byzants taken from a fat abbot, or a wench kissed in the greenwood with the relief of a poor widow.

Which of these was the good deed, which was the felony?' interrupted the Knight. A good gibe! A good Gibe!

Quoted on October 5, 2011