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For Alfred seide a wis word,
euch mon hit schulde legge on hord:
"3ef thu isihst er he beo icume,
his strencþe is him wel neh binume."

— Alfred the Great Misattributed

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Notes from Wikiquote

The Owl and the Nightingale, line 1223; as translated by Brian Stone in The Owl and the Nightingale, Cleanness, St. Erkenwald (1971), p. 224.

More quotes by Alfred the Great

Remember what punishments befell us in this world when we ourselves did not cherish learning nor transmit it to other men.

Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe!

I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works.

When the Sun
Clearest shineth
Serenest in the heaven,
Quickly are obscured
All over the earth
Other stars.

He seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear.

All Alfred the Great quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alfred the Great (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.