Charlemagne

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

“If only I could have a dozen churchmen as wise and as well taught in all human knowledge as were Jerome and Augustine!”

“It is not lack of self-restraint but care for others which makes me dine in Lent before the hour of evening.”

“Fathers and guardians, bishops of our Church, you ought to minister to the poor, or rather to Christ in them, and not to seek after vanities. But now you act quite contrary to this; and are vainglorious and avaricious beyond all other men.”

“Bishops should despise this world and inspire others by their example to seek after heavenly things. But now you are corrupted by ambition beyond all the rest of mankind; and one of them not content with holding the first episcopal see in Germany has dared without my approval to claim my golden sceptre, which I carry to signify my royal will, in order that he might use it as his pastoral staff.”