Top 168 Quotes & Sayings by Geoffrey Chaucer - Page 2

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.

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.

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.

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.

Men love newfangleness.

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.

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

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

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.

He is gentle that doeth gentle deeds.

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.

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.

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.

Trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe.

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

Make a virtue of necessity.

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

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

What's said is said and goes upon its way Like it or not, repent it as you may.

Felds hath eyen, and wode have eres.

With emptie hands men may no haukes lure.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Every honest miller has a golden thumb.

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

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

If love be good, from whence cometh my woe?

Ful wys is he that kan hymselven knowe.

Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie.

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!

Take a cat, nourish it well with milk and tender meat, make it a couch of silk.

Harde is his heart that loveth nought In May.

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.

Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!

That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.

And then the wren gan scippen and to daunce.

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.

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.

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

Nowhere so busy a man as he there was And yet he seemed busier than he was.

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

That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.

The handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us Most often are the very ones that end us.

Pitee renneth soone in gentil herte.

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

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

In love there is but little rest.

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

A love grown old is not the love once new.

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.

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

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.

He loved chivalrye Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye.

Abstinence is approved of God.

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

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