Lytton Strachey — English Critic born on March 01, 1880, died on January 21, 1932

Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic... (wikipedia)

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.
In pure literature, the writers of the eighteenth century achieved, indeed, many triumphs; but their great, their peculiar, triumphs were in the domain of thought.
Discretion is not the better part of biography.
The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion.
The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization.