This is Why We Love The Great Books

Excerpts from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain:

(Speaking of his humble manner of writing to the Duke)
"I have gathered no gaudy flowers of speech in other men's gardens. If I had adorned my page with high-flown rhetorical figures, I should have bored my readers, for they would have been forced to spend more time in discovering the meaning of my words than in following the story."

"... Mother Philosophy has taken you to her bosom, and to you she has taught the subtlety of her sciences." 

Reminiscent of the Good Ol' Days...
"The sons of Hector reigned in Troy... in Italy reigned Aeneas Silvius, son of Aeneas and uncle of Brutus, the third of the Latin kings..."

In reference to the traitors of Brennius...
"The spirit of discord, is however, perpetually on the watch for a chance to put an end to a state of prosperity..."

The Archbishop of London speaking to the complaining Britons in the aftermath of Maximianus's devastating reign...
"If you are men, then behave like men! Pray to Christ to give you courage and then protect your own liberty!"

Geoffrey's thoughts of the ruin of Briton...
"It is easier for a kite to be made to act like a sparrow-hawk than for a wise man to be fashioned at short notice from a peasant."

"The outer garment shall be a fair index of the thoughts within."

Speaking of the oncoming siege of Vortigern and his Saxons on Aurelius...
"Aurelius then exhorted his comrades to place all their hope in the Son of God, to attack their enemies boldly and to fight as one man for their homeland."

Hoorah for Old Briton!

And I conclude with my favorites...

(A Medieval compliment, given to King Arthur by Loth, his brother-in-law or uncle or somebody in the family)
"Your speech was adorned as with Ciceronian eloquence!" 

"[The ladies at court] scorned to give their love to any man who had not proved himself three times in battle. In this way the womenfolk became chaste and more virtuous and for their love the knights were ever more daring." 

:)