Chivalry is defined the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, especially courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. While it is up in the air about whether or not chivalry is dead in this generation, I think it is safe to say that it was not over the course of the last 300 years. The following five lines are all pulled from the novel Love Letters of Great Men and could turn just about anyone into a hopeless romanic.
William Cosgrove (1670-1729), A love letter to Arabella Hunt- “my soul can fix upon nothing but thee; thee it contemplates, admires, adores, nay depends on, trusts you alone.”
Denis Diderot (1713-1784), A love letter to Sophie Volland- “I am wholly yours - you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours.”
Denis Diderot (1713-1784), A love letter to Sophie Volland- “Examine yourself - see how worthy you are of being loved; and know that I love you very much.”
Robert Burns (1759-1796), A love letter to Mrs Agnes Maclehose- “That you have faults, my Clarinda, I never doubted; but I knew not where they existed…”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), A love letter to ‘Immortal Beloved’- “Oh, go on loving me - never doubt the faithfullest heart
Of your beloved
L
Ever thine.
Ever mine.
Ever ours.”
Mark Twain (1835-1910), A love letter to his wife, Livy, on her thirtieth birthday- “You are dearer to me to-day, my child, than you were upon the last anniversary of this birth-day; you were dearer then than you were a year before - you have grown more and more dear from the first of those anniversaries, and I do not doubt that this precious progression will continue on to the end.”
