Ivanhoe Quotes

Quote 1: "The royal policy had long been to weaken, by every means, legal or illegal, the strength of a part of the population which was justly considered as nourishing the most inveterate antipathy to their victor." Chapter 1, pg. 2

Quote 2: "In short, French was the language of honour, chivalry, and even of justice, while the far more manly and expressive Anglo-Saxon was abandoned to the use of rustics and hinds, who knew no other." Chapter 1, pg. 3

Quote 3: "Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood." Chapter 1, pg. 5

Quote 4: "Wamba, the son of Witless, is the thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood." Chapter 1, pg. 5

Quote 5: "Proud, fierce, jealous, and irritable, a withstander of the nobility, and even of his neighbors, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf and Philip Malvoisin, who are no babes to strive with. He stands up so sternly for the privileges of his race, and is so proud of his uninterrupted descent from Hereward, a renowned champion of the Heptarchy, that he is universally called Cedric the Saxon; and makes boast of his belonging to a people from whom many others endeavour to hide their descent, lest they should encounter a share of the voe victis, or severities imposed upon the vanquished." Chapter 2, pg.17

Quote 6: "Pride and jealousy there was in his eye, for his life had been spent in asserting rights which were constantly liable to invasion; and the prompt, fiery, and resolute disposition of the man had been kept constantly upon the alert by the circumstances of his situation." Chapter 3, pg. 23

Quote 7: "Say to them, Hundebert, that Cedric would himself bid them welcome, but he is under a vow never to step more than three steps from the dais of his own hall to meet any who shares not the blood of Saxon royalty." Chapter 3, pg. 27

Quote 8: "Vows, must be unloosed, worthy franklin, or permit me rather to say, worthy thane, though the title is antiquated. Vows are the knots which tie us to Heaven--they are the cords which bind the sacrifice to the horns of the alter--and are therefore, as I said before, to be unloosed and discharged, unless our Holy Mother Church shall pronounce the contrary." Chapter 4, pg. 29-30

Quote 9: "Upon the slightest and most unreasonable pretenses, as well as upon accusations the most absurd and groundless, their persons and property were exposed to every turn of popular fury; for Norman, Saxon, Dane, and Briton, however adverse these races were to each other, contended which should look with greatest detestation upon a people whom it was accounted a point of religion to hate, to revile, to despise, to plunder, and to persecute." Chapter 5, pg. 52

Quote 10: "These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom they despise and persecute. Without the aid of our wealth they could neither furnish forth their hosts in war nor their triumphs in peace; and the gold which we lend them returns with increase to our coffers. We are like the herb which flourisheth most when it is most trampled on." Chapter 10, pg. 93

Quote 11: "Alas, since your son was a follower of my unhappy brother, it need not be inquired where or from whom he learned the lesson of filial disobedience." Chapter 14, pg. 130

Quote 12: "The sudden and romantic appearance of his son in the lists at Ashby he had justly regarded as almost a death's blow to his hopes. His paternal affection, it is true, had for an instant gained the victory over pride and patriotism; but both had returned in full force, and under their joint operation he was now bent upon making a determined effort for the union of Athelstane and Rowena, together with expediting those other measures which seemed necessary to forward the restoration of Saxon independence." Chapter 18, pg. 162

Quote 13: "I will but confess the sins of my green cloak to my grey friar's frock, and all shall be well again." Chapter 20, pg. 174

Quote 14: "To heralds and to minstrels, then, leave thy praise, Sir Knight, more suiting for their mouths than for thine own; and tell me which of them shall record in song, or in book of tourney, the memorable conquest of this night, a conquest obtained over an old man, followed by a few timid hinds; and its booty, an unfortunate maiden transported against her will to the castle of a robber?" Chapter 23, pg. 196

Quote 15: "...a jealousy of ambition and of wealth, as well as of love..." Chapter 23, pg. 198

Quote 16: "The Templar loses, as thou hast said, his social rights, his power of free agency, but he becomes a member and a limb of a mighty body, before which thrones already tremble--even as the single drop of rain which mixes with the sea becomes an individual part of that restless ocean which undermines rocks and engulfs mighty armadas." Chapter 24, pg. 211

Quote 17: "To act as I have acted, to think as I have thought, requires the maddening love of pleasure, mingled with the keen appetite of revenge, the proud consciousness of power--draughts too intoxicating for the human heart to bear, and yet retain the power to prevent...Well thou has said, all is possible for those who dare to die!" Chapter 27, pg. 232

Quote 18: "Ivanhoe was too good a Catholic to retain the same class of feelings toward a Jewess." Chapter 28, pg. 249

Quote 19: "There are things most necessary to be done, the perpetrator of which we neither love nor honour; and there may be refusals to serve us which shall rather exalt in our estimation those who deny our request." Chapter 34, pg. 320

Quote 20: "I may forsake the order; I never will degrade or betray it." Chapter 39, pg. 368

Quote 21: "I tell thee, proud Templar, that not in thy fiercest battles hast thou displayed more of thy vaunted courage than has been shown by woman when called upon to suffer by affection or duty." Chapter 39, pg. 369

Quote 22: "You have power, rank, command, influence; we have wealth, the source both of our strength and weakness..." Chapter 40, pg. 431