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1 " There is no deception on the part of the woman, where a man bewilders himself: if he deludes his own wits, I can certainly acquit the women. Whatever man allows his mind to dwell upon the imprint his imagination has foolishly taken of women, is fanning the flames within himself -- and, since the woman knows nothing about it, she is not to blame. For if a man incites himself to drown, and will not restrain himself, it is not the water's fault. "
― John Gower , Confessio Amantis, Volume 1
2 " Gower is the first English writer to use "history" as an English word. He regularly rhymes the term with "memory," for to his way of thinking history and memory are correlative. That is, without history, there can be no memory; and without memory, there can be no history. But the point of historical knowledge is not to enable people to live in the past, or even to understand the past in the way we would expect a modern historian to proceed; rather, it is to enable people to live more vitally in the present. "
― John Gower , Confessio Amantis: Volume 2
3 " . . . in a strange land, on the borders of Chymerie . . . the god of sleep made his house . . . which of the sun may naught have, so no man may know aright the point between day and night. . . Round about there is growing on the ground, poppy which is the seed of sleep . . . a still water . . . runs upon the small stones . . . which gives great appetite for sleep. And thus full of delight the god of sleep has his house. "
― John Gower
