Geoffrey Chaucer quotes:

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  • Time and tide wait for no man.

  • Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed.

  • Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.

  • Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.

  • There was the murdered corpse, in covert laid, And violent death in thousand shapes displayed; The city to the soldier's rage resigned; Successless wars, and poverty behind; Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores, And the rash hunter strangled by the boars; The newborn babe by nurses overlaid; And the cook caught within the raging fire he made.

  • He was as fresh as is the month of May.

  • Abstinence is approved of God.

  • Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake.

  • People can die of mere imagination.

  • Nowhere so busy a man as he than he, and yet he seemed busier than he was.

  • Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.

  • Purity in body and heart May please some--as for me, I make no boast. For, as you know, no master of a household Has all of his utensils made of gold; Some are wood, and yet they are of use.

  • Patience is a conquering virtue.

  • For many a pasty have you robbed of blood, And many a Jack of Dover have you sold That has been heated twice and twice grown cold. From many a pilgrim have you had Christ's curse, For of your parsley they yet fare the worse, Which they have eaten with your stubble goose; For in your shop full many a fly is loose.

  • Strike while the iron is hot.

  • If gold rusts, what then can iron do?

  • And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other.

  • The guilty think all talk is of themselves.

  • For in their hearts doth Nature stir them so Then people long on pilgrimage to go And palmers to be seeking foreign strands To distant shrines renowned in sundry lands.

  • The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.

  • Patience is a conquering virtue. The learned say that, if it not desert you, It vanquishes what force can never reach; Why answer back at every angry speech? No, learn forbearance or, I'll tell you what, You will be taught it, whether you will or not.

  • There's never a new fashion but it's old.

  • Lo, which a greet thing is affeccioun!Men may die of imaginacioun,So depe may impressioun be take.

  • That of all the floures in the mede, Thanne love I most these floures white and rede, Suche as men callen daysyes in her toune.

  • All good things must come to an end.

  • What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.

  • The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.

  • How potent is the fancy! People are so impressionable, they can die of imagination.

  • The life so brief, the art so long in the learning, the attempt so hard, the conquest so sharp, the fearful joy that ever slips away so quickly - by all this I mean love, which so sorely astounds my feeling with its wondrous operation, that when I think upon it I scarce know whether I wake or sleep.

  • Thus in this heaven he took his delight And smothered her with kisses upon kisses Till gradually he came to know where bliss is.

  • Nature, the vicar of the Almighty Lord.

  • The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

  • There's no workman, whatsoever he be, That may both work well and hastily.

  • And then the wren gan scippen and to daunce.

  • The life so short, the crafts so long to learn.

  • Forbid us something, and that thing we desire.

  • By nature, men love newfangledness.

  • . . . if gold rust, what then will iron do?/ For if a priest be foul in whom we trust/ No wonder that a common man should rust. . . .

  • A love grown old is not the love once new.

  • A whetstone is no carving instrument, And yet it maketh sharp the carving tool; And if you see my efforts wrongly spent, Eschew that course and learn out of my school; For thus the wise may profit by the fool, And edge his wit, and grow more keen and wary, For wisdom shines opposed to its contrary.

  • A yokel mind loves stories from of old, Being the kind it can repeat and hold.

  • Alas, alas, that ever love was sin! I ever followed natural inclination Under the power of my constellation And was unable to deny, in truth, My chamber of Venus to a likely youth.

  • And as for me, thogh that I can but lyte, On bakes for to rede I me delyte, And to hem yeve I feyth and ful credence, And in myn herte have hem in reverence So hertely, that ther is game noon, That fro my bokes maketh me to goon, But hit be seldom, on the holyday; Save, certeynly, when that the month of May Is comen, and that I here the foules singe, And that the floures ginnen for to springe, Farwel my book and my devocion.

  • And for to see, and eek for to be seie.

  • And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

  • And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach

  • And she was fair as is the rose in May.

  • At the ches with me she (Fortune) gan to pleye; With her false draughts (pieces) dyvers/She staal on me, and took away my fers. And when I sawgh my fers awaye, Allas! I kouthe no lenger playe.

  • But al be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.

  • But all thing which that shineth as the gold Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told.

  • But Christ's lore and his apostles twelve, He taught and first he followed it himself.

  • But manly set the world on sixe and sevene; And, if thou deye a martir, go to hevene.

  • But, Lord Crist! whan that it remembreth me Upon my yowthe, and on my jolitee, It tickleth me aboute myn herte roote. Unto this day it dooth myn herte boote That I have had my world as in my tyme. But age, alias! that al wole envenyme, Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith. Lat go, farewel! the devel go therwith! The flour is goon, ther is namoore to telle; The bren, as I best kan, now most I selle.

  • By God, if women had written stories, As clerks had within here oratories, They would have written of men more wickedness Than all the mark of Adam may redress.

  • Certain, when I was born, so long ago, Death drew the tap of life and let it flow; And ever since the tap has done its task, And now there's little but an empty cask.

  • Certes, they been lye to hounds, for an hound when he cometh by the roses, or by other bushes, though he may nat pisse, yet wole he heve up his leg and make a countenance to pisse.

  • Death is the end of every worldly pain.

  • Drunkenness is the very sepulcher Of man's wit and his discretion.

  • Ek gret effect men write in place lite; Th'entente is al, and nat the lettres space.

  • Every honest miller has a golden thumb.

  • Felds hath eyen, and wode have eres.

  • Fie on possession, But if a man be vertuous withal.

  • First he wrought, and afterwards he taught.

  • Fo lo, the gentil kind of the lioun! For when a flye offendeth him or byteth, He with his tayl awey the flye smyteth Al esily, for, of his genterye, Him deyneth net to wreke him on a flye, As cloth a curre or elles another beste.

  • For God's love, take things patiently, have sense, Think! We are prisoners and shall always be. Fortune has given us this adversity, Some wicked planetary dispensation, Some Saturn's trick or evil constellation Has given us this, and Heaven, though we had sworn The contrary, so stood when we were born. We must endure it, that's the long and short.

  • For hym was levere have at his beddes heed Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophie, Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie.

  • For I have seyn of a ful misty morwe Folowen ful ofte a myrie someris day.

  • For of fortunes sharp adversitee The worst kynde of infortune is this, A man to han ben in prosperitee, And it remembren, whan it passed is.

  • For out of old fields, as men saith, Cometh all this new corn from year to year; And out of old books, in good faith, Cometh all this new science that men learn.

  • For oute of olde feldys, as men sey, Comyth al this newe corn from yer to yere; And out of olde bokis, in good fey, Comyth al this newe science that men lere.

  • For there is one thing I can safely say: that those bound by love must obey each other if they are to keep company long. Love will not be constrained by mastery; when mastery comes, the God of love at once beats his wings, and farewell he is gone. Love is a thing as free as any spirit; women naturally desire liberty, and not to be constrained like slaves; and so do men, if I shall tell the truth.

  • For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde.

  • For tyme y-lost may not recovered be.

  • For tyme ylost may nought recovered be.

  • Ful wys is he that kan himselve knowe.

  • Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.

  • Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!

  • Great peace is found in little busy-ness.

  • Habit maketh no monk, ne wearing of gilt spurs maketh no knight.

  • Hard is the heart that loveth nought In May.

  • He is gentle that doeth gentle deeds.

  • He that loveth God will do diligence to please God by his works, and abandon himself, with all his might, well for to do.

  • He who accepts his poverty unhurt I'd say is rich although he lacked a shirt. But truly poor are they who whine and fret and covet what they cannot hope to get.

  • Hyt is not al golde that glareth.

  • I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose.

  • I am right sorry for your heavinesse.

  • I gave my whole heart up, for him to hold.

  • I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke, That hath but on hole for to sterten to.

  • I wol yow telle, as was me taught also, The foure spirites and the bodies sevene, By ordre, as ofte I herde my lord hem nevene. The firste spirit quiksilver called is, The second orpiment, the thridde, ywis, Sal armoniak, and the firthe brimstoon. The bodies sevene eek, lo! hem heer anoon: Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe, Mars yron, Mercurie quiksilver we clepe, Saturnus leed, and Jupiter is tin, And Venus coper, by my fader kin!

  • If a man really loves a woman, of course he wouldn't marry her for the world if he were not quite sure that he was the best person she could possibly marry.

  • If gold ruste, what shall iren do?

  • If love be good, from whence cometh my woe?

  • If no love is, O God, what fele I so? And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo? If it be wikke, a wonder thynketh me

  • If were not foolish young, were foolish old.

  • In April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower.

  • In general, women desire to rule over their husbands and lovers, to be the authority above them.

  • In love there is but little rest.

  • In the stars is written the death of every man.

  • It is nought good a sleping hound to wake.

  • Lat take a cat, and fostre him wel with milk, And tendre flesh, and make his couche of silk, And let him seen a mous go by the wal; Anon he weyveth milk, and flesh, and al, And every deyntee that is in that hous, Swich appetyt hath he to ete a mous.

  • Loke who that is most vertuous alway, Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay To do the gentil dedes that he can, And take him for the gretest gentilman.

  • Look up on high, and thank the God of all.

  • Love will not be constrain'd by mastery. When mast'ry comes, the god of love anon Beateth his wings, and, farewell, he is gone. Love is a thing as any spirit free.

  • Make a virtue of necessity.

  • Many a true word is spoken in jest

  • Many small make a great.

  • Men love newfangleness.

  • Men sholde nat knowe of Goddes pryvetee Ye, blessed be alwey, a lewed man That noght but oonly his believe kan! So ferde another clerk with astromye, He walked in the feelds, for to prye Upon the sterres, what ther sholde bifalle, Til he was in a marle-pit yfalle.

  • Mercy surpasses justice.

  • Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie.

  • Mordre wol out, that se we day by day.

  • Murder will out, this my conclusion.

  • My house is small, but you are learned men And by your arguments can make a place Twenty foot broad as infinite as space.

  • 'My lige lady, generally,' quod he, 'Wommen desyren to have sovereyntee As well over hir housbond as hir love.'

  • No empty handed man can lure a bird

  • Of alle the floures in the mede, Than love I most these floures whyte and rede, Swiche as men callen daysies in our toun. . . . . Til that myn herte dye. . . . . That wel by reson men hit calle may The 'dayesye' or elles the 'ye of day,' The emperice and flour of floures alle. I pray to god that faire mot she falle, And alle that loven floures, for hir sake!

  • Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese.

  • One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance.

  • One cannot scold or complain at every word. Learn to endure patiently, or else, as I live and breathe, you shall learn it whether you want or not.

  • One eare it heard, at the other out it went.

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