If one of two lovers is loyal, and the other jealous and false, how may their friendship last, for Love is slain! – Marie de France
Fairest and dearest, your wrath and anger are more heavy than I can bear; but learn that I cannot tell what you wish me to say without sinning against my honour too grievously. – Marie de France
There are divers men who make a great show of loyalty, and pretend to such discretion in the hidden things they hear, that at the end folk come to put faith in them. – Marie de France
For what the lover would, that would the beloved; what she would ask of him that should he go before to grant. Without accord such as this, love is but a bond and a constraint. – Marie de France
But sweetly and discreetly love passes from person to person, from heart to heart, or it is nothing worth. – Marie de France
Now will I rehearse before you a very ancient Breton Lay. As the tale was told to me, so, in turn, will I tell it over again, to the best of my art and knowledge. Hearken now to my story, its why and its reason. – Marie de France
Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name. – Marie de France
For above all things Love means sweetness, and truth, and measure; yea, loyalty to the loved one and to your word. And because of this I dare not meddle with so high a matter. – Marie de France
Great were the lamentation and the cry when the news of this mischance was noised about the city. Such a tumult of mourning was never before heard, for the whole city was moved. – Marie de France
The dead and past stories that I have told again in divers fashions, are not set down without authority. – Marie de France
