Ian Mortimer Quotes

#1. Pope John's advisers were worried about the freedom to speak and to come and go to and from the council.

Ian Mortimer

#2. Oscar Wilde once quipped, "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything and the young know everything.

Ian Mortimer

#3. Most Elizabethan men will shake their heads in disbelief if you suggest the idea of the equality of the sexes. No two men are born equal - some are born rich, some poor; the elder of two brothers will succeed to his father's estates, not the younger - so why should men and women be treated equally?

Ian Mortimer

#4. All gentlemen of any rank with whom he holds conversations can speak Latin, French, Spanish or Italian. They are aware that the English language is only used in this island and would consider themselves uncivilized if they knew no other tongue than their own.

Ian Mortimer

#5. All leaders who go to war in the name of God are either zealots or hypocrites.

Ian Mortimer

#6. He was keen to use English as well as French in daily conversation, writing letters in English and commissioning translations of French and Latin books.

Ian Mortimer

#7. History is not just about the analysis of evidence, unrolling vellum documents or answering exam papers. It is not about judging the dead. It is about understanding the meaning of the past - to realize the whole evolving human story over centuries, not just our own lifetimes.

Ian Mortimer

#8. Literature is a means to delight the mind and embolden the spirit.

Ian Mortimer

#9. At Eton boys are woken at 5 a.m.; lessons begin at 6 a.m. and go on to 8 p.m. Teaching is generally in Latin and is a matter of learning by rote,

Ian Mortimer

#10. Our view of history diminishes the reality of the past. We concentrate on the historic event as something that has happened, and in so doing we ignore it as a moment which, at the time, is happening.

Ian Mortimer

#11. In Elizabethan England you will only find small codpieces. Large ones, stuffed with wool and looking like an erect male member, are out of date

Ian Mortimer

#12. Guy de Chauliac's advice to those wishing to avoid infection is as follows: 'Go quickly, go far, and return slowly.

Ian Mortimer

#13. As you travel around medieval England you will come across a sport described by some contemporaries as 'abominable ... more common, undignified and worthless than any other game, rarely ending but with some loss, accident or disadvantage to the players themselves'. This is football.

Ian Mortimer

#14. Justice is a relative concept in all ages. The fourteenth century is no exception.

Ian Mortimer

#15. It is better to eat the dog than be eaten by the dog', Montagu had remarked quietly to the king, after being dismissed from Mortimer's presence.

Ian Mortimer

#16. While the traditional image of knights in armour is accurate and widely accepted, the equally representative image of knights wearing corsets and suspender belts is perhaps less well known.

Ian Mortimer

#17. You might find it alarming to think that your doctor will not actually need to see you in person but might make a diagnosis based on the position of the stars, the colour and smell of your urine, and the taste of your blood.

Ian Mortimer