Life & Wisdom Quote by Marie de France

“Be sure that you speak with unfeigned lips” is a deceptively small line that carries the moral weight of an entire court. Marie de France, writing as a poet in the high medieval world of romance, knows that speech isn’t just expression; it’s currency. In an environment where status depends on performance - vows, compliments, confessions, pleas - the mouth becomes a political instrument. Her instruction lands less like a self-help maxim and more like a warning: if your words are staged, your relationships will be, too, and the fallout won’t stay private.

The phrase “unfeigned lips” is doing the real work. It’s visceral, almost legalistic: not “be sincere,” but “make sure your sincerity can’t be mistaken for acting.” The focus on lips, not “heart” or “mind,” suggests Marie’s realism about how truth is measured. People don’t get to inspect your intentions; they only hear your language, watch your face, and decide whether you’re performing. Sincerity becomes an outward discipline, not a purely inward feeling.

Read in the context of Marie’s lais, where love and loyalty are constantly tested by secrecy, rumor, and the social theater of the court, the line also carries a gendered edge. For women especially, speech could be both weapon and trap: say too much and you’re condemned; say too little and you’re suspected. Marie’s counsel isn’t naive about honesty; it’s tactical. Speak plainly, but do it with a credibility so embodied it can survive a world hungry for pretense.