On the contrary, he made it clear that the business of the philosophers was to make ideas available, and not to impose them on people.
If I were to be made a knight, said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, I should insist on doing my vigil by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all...
I am a failure in the world. I do not rule people, nor deceive them for the sake of power, nor try to swindle their livelihood into my own possession. I say to them: Please go freely on your way, and...
Do you think that they, with their Battles, Famine, Black Death and Serfdom, were less enlightened than we are, with our Wars, Blockade, Influenza, and Conscription.
It seems, in tragedy, that innocence is not enough.
In going to sleep he had learned to vanquish light, and now the light could not rewake him.
He began to see why Merlyn had always clowned on purpose. It had been a means of helping people to learn in a happy way.
There would be a day—there must be a day—when he would come back to Gramarye with a new Round Table which had no corners, just as the world had none—a table without boundaries between the nations who...
The boy slept well in the woodland nest where he had laid himself down, in that kind of thin but refreshing sleep which people have when they begin to lie out of doors. At first he only dipped below t...
The best thing for being sad . . . is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorde...
Sometimes, he said, life does seem to be unfair. Do you know the story of Elijah and the Rabbi Jachanan? No, said the Wart. He sat down resignedly upon the most comfortable part of the floor, perceivi...
Merlyn took the Wart’s hand and said kindly, You are young, and do not understand these things. But you will learn that owls are the most courteous, single-hearted and faithful creatures living. You m...
It was a grey September day, with the blue and copper butterflies flitting in the after-grass, the partridges calling like crickets, the blackberries colouring, and the hazel nuts still nursing their...
In the castle of Benwick, the French boy was looking at his face in the polished surface of a kettle-hat. It flashed in the sunlight with the stubborn gleam of metal. It was practically the same as th...
IT WAS CHRISTMAS night, the eve of the Boxing Day Meet. You must remember that this was in the old Merry England of Gramarye, when the rosy barons ate with their fingers, and had peacocks served befor...
I incline my agreement with Toirdealbhach,' said Gareth. 'After all, what is the good of killing poor kerns who do not know anything? It would be much better for the people who are angry to fight each...
He was neither clever nor sensitive, but he was loyal--stubbornly sometimes, and even annoyingly and stupidly so in later life.
Gawaine and Gareth took turns with the fat ass, one of them whacking it while the other rode bareback.
Elaine had done the ungraceful thing as usual. Guenever, in similar circumstances, would have been sure to grow pale and interesting—but Elaine had only grown plump.
And in the winter, which was confined by statute to two months, the snow lay evenly, three feet thick, but never turned into slush.
