When I remembered all this, I wondered greatly at the good wise men who once lived throughout England, and how lovingly they had translated learning into their own language.
Ða iċ ða ðis eall ġemunde, ða wundrade iċ swiðe swiðe þara godena wiotena þe ġiu wæron ġiond Angelċynn... hu hie luflice hit on hira agen ġeþeode wendan.
Politicians
Alfred the Great
King of Wessex (r. 871-899) and the only English-born monarch styled 'the Great'. He stopped the Viking conquest at Edington (878), built a network of fortified burhs and translated Latin classics into Old English.
View this figure's profile
Alfred the Great's Other Quotes
Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we translate the books most needful for all men to know into the language we can all understand.
I desired to live worthily while I lived, and after my life to leave to those who come after me the memory of good works.
Wisdom is the father of all virtues.
Related Quotes
Philosophy is nothing other than the pursuit of nobility and goodness.
-- Gaius Musonius Rufus
Educate the children and it will not be necessary to punish the men.
-- Pythagoras
Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies.
-- Hypatia
To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.
-- Hypatia
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
-- Confucius
Blue dye is extracted from the indigo plant, yet it is bluer than indigo itself.
-- Xunzi