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Men love newfangleness. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Ek gret effect men write in place lite; Th'entente is al, and nat the lettres space. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Fie on possession, But if a man be vertuous withal. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
First he wrought, and afterwards he taught. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Felds hath eyen, and wode have eres. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Youth may outrun the old, but not outwit. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
But all thing which that shineth as the gold Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And once he had got really drunk on wine,
Then he would speak no language but Latin. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
He loved chivalrye Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
I gave my whole heart up, for him to hold. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Ne nevere mo ne lakked hire pite;
Tendre-herted, slydynge of corage;
But trewely, I kan nat telle hire age. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
In love there is but little rest. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
earn what you can since everything's for sale -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Abstinence is approved of God. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
For sondry scoles maken sotile clerkis;
Womman of manye scoles half a clerk is. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
For I have seyn of a ful misty morwe Folowen ful ofte a myrie someris day. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
One shouldn't be too inquisitive in life Either about God's secrets or one's wife. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And then the wren gan scippen and to daunce. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Every honest miller has a golden thumb. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Then the Miller fell off his horse. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
What's said is said and goes upon its way Like it or not, repent it as you may. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
A yokel mind loves stories from of old, Being the kind it can repeat and hold. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
If gold rusts, what then can iron do? -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Many a true word is spoken in jest -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Habit maketh no monk, ne wearing of gilt spurs maketh no knight. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Expierience treacherous. Judgement difficult. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
First he wrought, and afterward he taught. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Til that the brighte sonne loste his hewe; For th'orisonte hath reft the sonne his lyght; This is as muche to seye as it was nyght! -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Or as an ook comth of a litel spir, So thorugh this lettre, which that she hym sente, Encressen gan desir, of which he brente. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The life so short, the crafts so long to learn. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
All good things must come to an end. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Who then may trust the dice, at Fortune's throw? -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Full wise is he that can himselven knowe. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
We're like two dogs in battle on their own;
They fought all day but neither got the bone,
There came a kite above them, nothing loth,
And while they fought he took it from them both."
From Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Until we're rotten, we cannot be ripe. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The smylere with the knyf under the cloke. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Time lost, as men may see, For nothing may recovered be. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Look up on high, and thank the God of all. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Thus with hir fader for a certeyn space
Dwelleth this flour of wyfly pacience,
That neither by hir wordes ne hir face
Biforn the folk, ne eek in her absence,
Ne shewed she that hir was doon offence. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.
A Knight's Tale -- Geoffrey Chaucer
But al be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Patience is a conquering virtue. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
A love grown old is not the love once new. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
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
It is ful fair a man to bere him evene,/For alday meeteth men at unset stevene. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
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
the guilty think all talk is of themselves. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Men may the wise atrenne, and naught atrede. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
When that Aprille with his shoures sote.
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertue engendred is the flour. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Youre tale anoyeth al this compaignye.
Swich talkyng is nat worth a boterflye, -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
people have managed to marry without arithmetic -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Ther is no newe gyse that it nas old. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
His spirit chaunged house and wente ther,
As I cam nevere, I kan nat tellen wher. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, That may bothe werke wel and hastily. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Who looks at me, beholdeth sorrows all, All pain, all torture, woe and all distress; I have no need on other harms to call, As anguish, languor, cruel bitterness, Discomfort, dread, and madness more and less; Methinks from heaven above the tears must rain In pity for my harsh and cruel pain. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke, That hath but on hole for to sterten to. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Make a virtue of necessity. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo? -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And brought of mighty ale a large quart. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
But of no nombre mencioun made he, Of bigamye, or of octogamye33. Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileinye34? -- Geoffrey Chaucer
But Christ's lore and his apostles twelve,
He taught and first he followed it himself. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo, And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Drunkenness is the very sepulcher
Of man's wit and his discretion. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
If love be good, from whence cometh my woe? -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Be nat wrooth, my lord, though that I pleye. Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd seye! -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
He was as fresh as is the month of May. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
There's never a new fashion but it's old. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
all that glitters is not gold, -- Geoffrey Chaucer
He kept his tippet stuffed with pins for curls, And pocket-knives, to give to pretty girls. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
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
For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Eke wonder last but nine deies never in toun. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Hyt is not al golde that glareth. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
For thus men seyth, That on thenketh the beere,
But al another thenketh his ledere. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Who shall give a lover any law?' Love is a greater law, by my troth, than any law written by mortal man. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Thou shalt make castels thanne in Spayne And dreme of joye, all but in vayne. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
you will not be master of my body & my property -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And when a beest is deed, he hath no peyne; But man after his deeth moot wepe and pleyne. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And after winter folweth grene May. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Yblessed be god that I have wedded fyve! Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Take a cat, nourish it well with milk and tender meat, make it a couch of silk ... -- Geoffrey Chaucer
What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
My house is small, but you are learned men And by your arguments can make a place Twenty foot broad as infinite as space. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Ful wys is he that kan himselve knowe. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
It is nought good a sleping hound to wake. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
There's no workman, whatsoever he be, That may both work well and hastily. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
I'll die for stifled love, by all that's true. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
... murder wol out -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
doctors & druggists wash each other's hands -- Geoffrey Chaucer
But manly set the world on sixe and sevene; And, if thou deye a martir, go to hevene. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Nature, the vicar of the Almighty Lord. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
'My lige lady, generally,' quod he, 'Wommen desyren to have sovereyntee As well over hir housbond as hir love.' -- Geoffrey Chaucer
If gold ruste, what shall iren do? -- Geoffrey Chaucer
people can die of mere imagination -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The gretteste clerkes been noght wisest men. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
I am right sorry for your heavinesse. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
This flour of wifly patience. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Soun is noght but air ybroken, And every speche that is spoken, Loud or privee, foul or fair, In his substaunce is but air; For as flaumbe is but lighted smoke, Right so soun is air ybroke. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
He is gentle that doeth gentle deeds. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The fields have eyes, and the woods have ears. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Death is the end of every worldly pain. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Murder will out, this my conclusion. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
For tyme y-lost may not recovered be. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
For tyme ylost may nought recovered be. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
To keep demands as much skill as to win. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Three years went by in happiness and health; He bore himself so well in peace and war That there was no one Theseus valued more. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
In the stars is written the death of every man. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The bisy larke, messager of day. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
No empty handed man can lure a bird -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And shame it is, if that a priest take keep, To see a shitten shepherd and clean sheep: -- Geoffrey Chaucer
By nature, men love newfangledness. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
3440 An hole he fond3440, ful lowe upon a bord, Theras3441 the cat was wont in for to crepe, And at that hole he looked in ful depe3442, And atte laste he hadde of him a sighte. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Many small make a great. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Mordre wol out, that se we day by day. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
With emptie hands men may no haukes lure. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And for to see, and eek for to be seie. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie! -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The man who has no wife is no cuckold. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The cat would eat fish but would not get her feet wet. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us Most often are the very ones that end us. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
we know little of the things for which we pray -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Lo, which a greet thing is affeccioun!
Men may die of imaginacioun,
So depe may impressioun be take. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
One eare it heard, at the other out it went. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
A priest should take to heart the shameful scene of shepards filthy while the sheep are clean. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
One flesh they are; and one flesh, so I'd guess,
Has but one heart, come grief or happiness. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The devil can only destroy those who are already on their way to damnation. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
So was hir jolly whistel wel y-wette. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
How potent is the fancy! People are so impressionable, they can die of imagination. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
By God," quod he, "for pleynly, at a word,
Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord! -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Truth is the highest thing that man may keep. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Nowhere so busy a man as he than he, and yet he seemed busier than he was. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The latter end of joy is woe. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Well is it said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Forbid Us Something and That Thing we Desire -- Geoffrey Chaucer
Everybody wants to go to the Super Bowl. Nobody wants to run laps. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
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
You are the cause by which I die. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
If were not foolish young, were foolish old. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
And she was fair as is the rose in May. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
In general, women desire to rule over their husbands and lovers, to be the authority above them. -- Geoffrey Chaucer
