“During the first century A.D., Alexandria was a veritable hotbed of mystical activity, a crucible in which Judaic, Mithraic, Zoroastrian, Pythagorean, Hermetic, and neo-Platonic doctrines suffused the air and combined with innumerable others.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“In December 1945 an Egyptian peasant, digging for soft and fertile soil near the village of Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt, exhumed a red earthenware jar. It proved to contain thirteen codices— papyrus books or scrolls—bound in leather.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The Nag Hammadi scrolls are a collection of biblical texts, essentially Gnostic in character, which date, it would appear, from the late fourth or early fifth century—from about A.D. 400.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The "treasure," he declared flatly, did not involve gold or precious stones. On the contrary, it consisted of "incontrovertible proof" that the Crucifixion was a fraud and that Jesus was alive as late as A.D. 45.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The Gospel of Matthew states explicitly that Jesus was of royal blood—a genuine king, the lineal descendant of Solomon and David.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“the Ordre de Sion was founded by Godfroi de Bouillon in 1090,”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“under the same cross that Christopher Columbus’s three caravels crossed the Atlantic to the New World.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“in 1522 the Templars’ Prussian progeny, the Teutonic Knights, secularized themselves, repudiated their allegiance to Rome, and threw their support behind an upstart rebel and heretic named Martin Luther.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“the first historical information on the Templars is provided by a Frankish historian, Guillaume de Tyre, who wrote between 1175 and 1185.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“According to tradition as well as certain early Church writers, Lazarus, the Magdalen, Martha, Joseph of Arimathea, and a few others were transported by ship to Marseilles.16”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“between 1195 and 1220, Wolfram composed his epic romance Parzival, he conferred on the Templars a most exalted status.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The final recorded act in the order’s history had been the burning of the last grand master, Jacques de Molay, in March 1314.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The declared objective of the Templars, Guillaume de Tyre continues, was, "as far as their strength permitted, they should keep the roads and highways safe ... with especial regard for the protection of pilgrims.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“Among the most popular and evocative of medieval myths is that of Lohengrin, the "Swan Knight.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“When the king’s head fell beneath the guillotine, an unknown man is reported to have leaped onto the scaffold. He dipped his hand in the monarch’s blood, flung it out over the surrounding throng and cried, "Jacques de Molay, thou art avenged!”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“Rennes-le-Château and its environs had been on the ancient pilgrim route, which ran from northern Europe to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“In 1956 a series of books, articles, pamphlets, and other documents relating to Bérenger Saunière and the enigma of Rennes-le-Chateau began to appear in France.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The Templars were sworn to poverty, chastity, and obedience.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“I TEGO ARCANA DEI (BEGONE! I CONCEAL THE SECRETS OF GOD.)”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“All members of the order were obliged to wear white habits of surcoats and cloaks, and these soon evolved into the distinctive white mantle for which the Templars became famous.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“In 1146 the Templars adopted the famous splayed red cross—the cross pattée.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“In 1977 a new and particularly significant "Prieuré document" appeared—a six-page pamphlet entitled Le Cercle d’Ulysse written by one Jean Delaude.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“In 1738 Pope Clement XII issued a papal bull condemning and excommunicating all Freemasons, whom he pronounced "enemies of the Roman Church.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The sack of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the destruction of the temple prompted a massive exodus of Jews from the Holy Land.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“In 1099, immediately after the capture of Jerusalem, a group of anonymous figures convened in secret conclave.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“To drink like a Templar" became a cliché of the time.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The "Donation of Constantine" purported to date from Constantine’s alleged conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“René d’Anjou—"Good King René" as he was known—was one of the most important figures in European culture during the years immediately preceding the Renaissance.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
“The name derives from Charles Martel, although it is generally associated with the most famous of Carolingian rulers, Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or, as he is best known, Charlemagne.”
― Michael Baigent, quote from Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Michael Baigent
Born place: in Christchurch, New Zealand
Born date February 27, 1948
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“The conduct of a new sedoretu is to some extent, and wisely, prescribed by custom and sanctioned by religion. The first night after the ceremony of marriage belongs to the Morning and Evening couples; the second night to the Day and Night couples. Thereafter the four spouses may join as and when they please, but always and only by invitation given and accepted, and the arrangements are to be known to all four. Four souls and bodies and all the years of their four lives to come are in the balance in each of those decisions and invitations; passion, negative and positive, must find its channels, and trust must be established, lest the whole structure fail to found itself solidly, or destroy itself in selfishness and jealousy and grief.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
“You can't base your decisions on anyone's opinion but yours and God's.”
― Karen Kingsbury, quote from Redemption
“In earlier times, one had an easier conscience about being a person than one does today. People were like cornstalks in a field, probably more violently tossed back and forth by God, hail, fire, pestilence, and war than they are today, but as a whole, as a city, a region, a field, and as to what personal movement was left to the individual stalk – all this was clearly defined and could be answered for. But today responsibility’s center of gravity is not in people but in circumstances. Have we not noticed that experiences have made themselves independent of people? They have gone on the stage, into books, into the reports of research institutes and explorers, into ideological or religious communities, which foster certain kinds of experience at the expense of others as if they are conducting a kind of social experiment, and insofar as experiences are not actually being developed, they are simply left dangling in the air. Who can say nowadays that his anger is really his own anger when so many people talk about it and claim to know more about it than he does? A world of qualities without a man has arisen, of experiences without the person who experiences them, and it almost looks as though ideally private experience is a thing of the past, and that the friendly burden of personal responsibility is to dissolve into a system of formulas of possible meanings. Probably the dissolution of the anthropocentric point of view, which for such a long time considered man to be at the center of the universe but which has been fading away for centuries, has finally arrived at the “I” itself, for the belief that the most important thing about experience is the experiencing, or of action the doing, is beginning to strike most people as naïve. There are probably people who still lead personal lives, who say “We saw the So-and-sos yesterday” or “We’ll do this or that today” and enjoy it without its needing to have any content of significance. They like everything that comes in contact with their fingers, and are purely private persons insofar as this is at all possible. In contact with such people, the world becomes a private world and shines like a rainbow. They may be very happy, but this kind of people usually seems absurd to the others, although it is still not at all clear why.
And suddenly, in view of these reflections, Ulrich had to smile and admit to himself that he was, after all, a character, even without having one.”
― Robert Musil, quote from The Man Without Qualities: Vol. 1
“Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure.”
― John Stuart Mill, quote from Utilitarianism
“Jealousy hot flashes through my body, a thunderbolt crashing through.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from You Know Where to Find Me
Stitching Snow
The World Peace Diet
The Story of Awkward
In The Blood
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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