Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

175 Sourced Quotes

'By God,' quod he, 'for pleynly, at a word,
Thy drasty rymyng is nat worth a toord!'

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

Geoffrey Chaucer
For the proverbe seith that "manye smale maken a greet."

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
That "feeld hath eyen, and the wode hath eres."

Geoffrey Chaucer
And therefore, at the kynges court, my brother,
Ech man for hymself, ther is noon oother.

Geoffrey Chaucer
For I am shave as neigh as any frere.
But yit I praye unto youre curteisye:
Beeth hevy again, or elles moot I die.

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
Looke who that is moost vertuous alway,
Pryvee and apert, and most entendeth ay To do the gentil dedes that he kan;
Taak hym for the grettest gentil man.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Whoso shal telle a tale after a man,
He moot reherce as ny as evere he kan Everich a word, if it be in his charge,
Al speke he never so rudeliche and large,
Or ellis he moot telle his tale untrewe,
Or feyne thyng, or fynde wordes new.

Geoffrey Chaucer
But, Lord Crist! whan that it remembreth me Upon my yowthe, and on my jolitee, It tikleth me aboute myn herte roote. Unto this day it dooth myn herte boote That I have had my world as in my tyme.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Be ay of chiere as light as leef on lynde,
And lat hym care, and wepe, and wrynge, and waille!

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

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
That he is gentil that dooth gentil dedis.

Geoffrey Chaucer
The gretteste clerkes been noght the wisest men.

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

Geoffrey Chaucer
Nature, the vicaire of the almyghty lorde.

Geoffrey Chaucer
But Cristes loore and his apostles twelve He taughte, but first he folwed it hymselve.

Geoffrey Chaucer
God loveth, and to love wol nought werne,
And in this world no lyves creature
Withouten love is worth, or may endure.

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

Geoffrey Chaucer
Venus clerk Ovide,
That hath ysowen wonder wide
The grete god of Loves name.

Geoffrey Chaucer
His coomb was redder than the fyn coral,
And batailled as it were a castel wal.

Geoffrey Chaucer
My sone, keep wel thy tonge, and keep thy freend.

Geoffrey Chaucer
For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
The seson priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte.

Geoffrey Chaucer
But—Lord Crist!—what that it remembreth me
Upon my yowthe, and on my jolitee,
It tikleth me aboute myn herte roote.
Unto this day it dooth myn herte boote
That I have had my world as in my time.

Geoffrey Chaucer
I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but on hole for to sterten to.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Ther nys no werkman, whatsoevere he be,
That may bothe werke wel and hastily;
This wol be doon at leyser parfitly.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Myn be the travaille, and thyn be the glorie!

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

Geoffrey Chaucer