Geoffrey Chaucer quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Geoffrey Chaucer on Wise Famous Quotes.

The devil can only destroy those who are already on their way to damnation.

Felds hath eyen, and wode have eres.

Youre tale anoyeth al this compaignye.
Swich talkyng is nat worth a boterflye,

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

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

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

Hyt is not al golde that glareth.

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

And when a beest is deed, he hath no peyne; But man after his deeth moot wepe and pleyne.

If gold ruste, what shall iren do?

The man who has no wife is no cuckold.

Many a true word is spoken in jest

the guilty think all talk is of themselves.

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.

Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake.

Then the Miller fell off his horse.

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

Death is the end of every worldly pain.

Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, That may bothe werke wel and hastily.

Abstinence is approved of God.

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

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

No empty handed man can lure a bird

In the stars is written the death of every man.

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.

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

It is nought good a sleping hound to wake.

you will not be master of my body & my property

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.

Who then may trust the dice, at Fortune's throw?

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 ...

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

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

Men love newfangleness.

Until we're rotten, we cannot be ripe.

That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.

people have managed to marry without arithmetic

And after winter folweth grene May.

Forbid Us Something and That Thing we Desire

Murder will out, this my conclusion.

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

Ful wys is he that kan himselve knowe.

If love be good, from whence cometh my woe?

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

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

The gretteste clerkes been noght wisest men.

The cat would eat fish but would not get her feet wet.

... murder wol out

One shouldn't be too inquisitive in life Either about God's secrets or one's wife.

This flour of wifly patience.

And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?

we know little of the things for which we pray

In love there is but little rest.

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

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

I am right sorry for your heavinesse.

Time lost, as men may see, For nothing may recovered be.

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

Trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe.

Yblessed be god that I have wedded fyve! Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.

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

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

To keep demands as much skill as to win.

The fields have eyes, and the woods have ears.

Every honest miller has a golden thumb.

Eke wonder last but nine deies never in toun.

Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese.

Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!

Who shall give a lover any law?' Love is a greater law, by my troth, than any law written by mortal man.

But of no nombre mencioun made he, Of bigamye, or of octogamye33. Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileinye34?

You are the cause by which I die.

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!

He loved chivalrye Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye.

Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Expierience treacherous. Judgement difficult.

This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo, And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro.

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

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people

Thou shalt make castels thanne in Spayne And dreme of joye, all but in vayne.

all that glitters is not gold,

Well is it said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour.

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

Make a virtue of necessity.

One flesh they are; and one flesh, so I'd guess,
Has but one heart, come grief or happiness.

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

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

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

He was as fresh as is the month of May.

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

Patience is a conquering virtue.

Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie.

A love grown old is not the love once new.

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

earn what you can since everything's for sale

The bisy larke, messager of day.

For tyme y-lost may not recovered be.

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

For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust,
No wonder is a common man should rust
-The Prologue of Chaucers Canterbury Tales-

The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.

Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.

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