Inveni fateor in rege monachum, claustrum in curia, in palatio monasterii disciplinam. I confess that I found in the king a monk, in the court a cloister, and in the palace the discipline of a monastery.

-St Aelred of Riveaulx   d.1167
?c.1160  Lament for David I, King of Scotland. Quoted in  John Fordoun Chronicle of Scotland (c.1384), bk.5, ch.43.

   Claustrum sine armario quasi castrum sine armamentario. Ipsum armarium nostrum est armamenturium. A cloister without a library is like a castle without an armoury. For the library is our armoury.

-Geoffrey de Breteuil   fl.12c
c.1165  Letter to Peter Mangot.

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale, And love the high embowe'  d roof, With antic pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight Casting a dim religious light.

-Milton,John
c.1631 Il Penseroso, l.155^60.