Top 100 Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes
#1. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#2. 'My lige lady, generally,' quod he, 'Wommen desyren to have sovereyntee As well over hir housbond as hir love.'
Geoffrey Chaucer
#6. For sondry scoles maken sotile clerkis;
Womman of manye scoles half a clerk is.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#7. Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, That may bothe werke wel and hastily.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#8. But manly set the world on sixe and sevene; And, if thou deye a martir, go to hevene.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#9. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#10. Ne nevere mo ne lakked hire pite;
Tendre-herted, slydynge of corage;
But trewely, I kan nat telle hire age.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#14. Ek gret effect men write in place lite; Th'entente is al, and nat the lettres space.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#15. Go litel bok, go, litel myn tragedye,
Ther God thi makere yet, er that he dye,
So sende myght to make in som comedye!
But litel book, no makyng thow n'envie,
But subgit be to alle poesye;
And kis the steppes where as thow seest pace
Virgile, Ovide, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#20. And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?
Geoffrey Chaucer
#23. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#25. Yblessed be god that I have wedded fyve! Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#26. And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#29. He that loveth God will do diligence to please God by his works, and abandon himself, with all his might, well for to do.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#33. A bettre preest, I trowe that nowher noon is. He wayted after no pompe and reverence, 525 Ne maked him a spyced conscience, But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, He taughte, and first he folwed it him-selve.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#34. For thus men seyth, That on thenketh the beere,
But al another thenketh his ledere.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#35. By Pluto sent at the request of Saturn. Arcita's horse in terror danced a pattern And leapt aside and foundered as he leapt, And ere he was aware Arcite was swept Out of the saddle and pitched upon his head Onto the ground, and there he lay for dead; His breast was shattered by the saddle-bow.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#36. I know that my singing doesn't make the moon rise, nor does it make the stars shine. But without my song, the night would seem empty and incomplete. There is more to daybreak than light, just as there is more to nighttime than darkness.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#39. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#40. Nowhere so busy a man as he than he, and yet he seemed busier than he was.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#44. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#45. 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
Geoffrey Chaucer
#46. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#47. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#51. Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#54. Well is it said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#56. Lo, which a greet thing is affeccioun!
Men may die of imaginacioun,
So depe may impressioun be take.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#58. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#61. But of no nombre mencioun made he, Of bigamye, or of octogamye33. Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileinye34?
Geoffrey Chaucer
#63. By God," quod he, "for pleynly, at a word,
Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord!
Geoffrey Chaucer
#64. The handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us Most often are the very ones that end us.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#65. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#67. But Christ's lore and his apostles twelve,
He taught and first he followed it himself.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#71. I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke, That hath but on hole for to sterten to.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#73. One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#74. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#76. Thus in this heaven he took his delight And smothered her with kisses upon kisses Till gradually he came to know where bliss is.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#78. Be nat wrooth, my lord, though that I pleye. Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd seye!
Geoffrey Chaucer
#79. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#80. Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#81. How potent is the fancy! People are so impressionable, they can die of imagination.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#82. But al be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#83. Yet do not miss the moral, my good men.
For Saint Paul says that all that's written well
Is written down some useful truth to tell.
Then take the wheat and let the chaff lie still.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#84. For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust,
No wonder is a common man should rust
-The Prologue of Chaucers Canterbury Tales-
Geoffrey Chaucer
#85. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#87. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#88. 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.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#89. Everybody wants to go to the Super Bowl. Nobody wants to run laps.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#93. A yokel mind loves stories from of old, Being the kind it can repeat and hold.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#95. And when a beest is deed, he hath no peyne; But man after his deeth moot wepe and pleyne.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#96. 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 ...
Geoffrey Chaucer
#97. Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer*, *small shield And by his side a sword and a buckler, And on that other side a gay daggere, Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spear:
Geoffrey Chaucer
#99. His spirit chaunged house and wente ther,
As I cam nevere, I kan nat tellen wher.
Geoffrey Chaucer
#100. There's no workman, whatsoever he be, That may both work well and hastily.
Geoffrey Chaucer
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