Charlemagne Quotes

“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”

“To know another language is to possess a second soul.”

“To love justice is the first step toward being just.”

“To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.”

“To spare the vanquished is to disarm the victor.”

“To wage war is human; to make peace, divine.”

“To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.”

“I consider it necessary to compel the rebellious to submit, for the sake of peace.”

“I have resolved never to start an unjust war, but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies.”

“Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.”

“The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.”

“Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right.”

“If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter, lurking among them, shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism, and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death.”

“The whole salvation of the church of Christ rests in your hands.”

“He left all Europe filled with every goodness.”

“We exhort you not only not to neglect the study of letters, but also with most humble mind, pleasing to God, to study earnestly in order that you may be able more easily and more correctly to penetrate the mysteries of the divine Scriptures.”

“He was so moderate in the use of wine and all sorts of drink that he rarely allowed himself more than three cups in the course of a meal.”

“I judged it better to hand over these things to the memory of posterity than to suffer the most illustrious life of the most excellent king and greatest of all men of his age to be banished to the darkness.”