Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

“And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”

“And high above, depicted in a tower, sat Conquest, robed in majesty and power, under a sword that swung above his head, sharp-edged and hanging by a subtle thread.”

“And shame it is, if that a priest take keep, To see a shitten shepherd and clean sheep.”

“Be nat wrooth, my lord, though that I pleye. Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd seye!”

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

“But for to telle yow al hir beautee,
It lyth nat in my tonge, n'yn my konnyng;
I dar nat undertake so heigh a thyng.
Myn Englissh eek is insufficient.
It moste been a rethor excellent
That koude his colours longynge for that art,
If he sholde hire discryven every part.
I am noon swich, I moot speke as I kan.”

“doctors & druggists wash each other's hands”

“earn what you can since everything's for sale”

“For he would rather have, by his bedside, twenty books, bound in black or red, of Aristotle and his philosophy, than rich robes or costly fiddles or gay harps.”

“For naturally a beast desires to flee From any enemy that he may see, Though never yet he's clapped on such his eye.”

“Fortune has dealt us this adversity:
Some malign aspect or disposition
Of Saturn in some adverse position
Has brought it on us; nothing's to be done:
It stood thus in our stars when we were born;
The long and short of it is this: Endure.”

“He kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls, And pocket-knives, to give to pretty girls.”

“He who repeats a tale after a man,
Is bound to say, as nearly as he can,
Each single word, if he remembers it,
However rudely spoken or unfit,
Or else the tale he tells will be untrue,
The things invented and the phrases new.”

“High in moral virtue was his speech, and gladly would he learn and gladly teach.”

“if gold rust, what shall iron do? For if a Priest, upon whom we trust, be foul, no wonder a layman may yield to lust.”

“If gold rusts, what then can iron do?”

“If you are poor your very brother hates you And all your friends avoid you, sad to say.”

“In general, my liege lady,’ he began, ‘Women desire to have dominion Over their husbands, and their lovers too; They want to have mastery over them. That’s what you most desire—even if my life Is forfeit. I am here; do what you like.”

“It seems to me that poverty is an eyeglass through which one may see his true friends.”

“No empty handed man can lure a bird”

“O woman’s counsel is so often cold! A woman’s counsel brought us first to woe, Made Adam out of Paradise to go Where he had been so merry, so well at ease.”

“People can die of mere imagination.”

“People have managed to marry without arithmetic.”

“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.”

“Shepherds too soft who let their duty sleep, Encourage wolves to tear the lambs and sleep.”

“So astute was he in his buying and selling, and in his borrowings, that no one knew if he was in debt.”

“The man who has no wife is no cuckold.”

“The moral of all tragedies is the same: that Fortune always attacks arrogant kingdoms when they least expect it.”

“The time always flees; it will wait for no man. And through you are still in the flower of your young manhood, age creeps on steadily, as quiet as a stone, and death meanaces every age and strikes in every rank, for no one escapes. As surely as we know that we will die, so we are uncertain of the day when death shall fall on us.”

“The virtue that crowns perfection is patience.”