Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

175 Sourced Quotes

Soun ys noght but eyr ybroken,
And every speche that ys spoken,
Lowd or pryvee, foul or fair,
In his substaunce ys but air.

Geoffrey Chaucer
The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.

Geoffrey Chaucer
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught; but first he folwed it himselve.

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

Geoffrey Chaucer
Greet prees at market maketh deere ware,
And to greet cheep is holde at litel prys.

Geoffrey Chaucer
O yonge fresshe folkes, he or she,
In which that love up-groweth with your age,
Repeyreth hoom fro worldly vanitee,
And of your herte up-casteth the visage
To thilke God that after his image
Yow made, and thynketh al nis but a faire
This world, that passeth sone as floures faire.

Geoffrey Chaucer
And what is bettre than wisedoom? Womman. And
what is bettre than a good womman? Nothyng.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love.

Geoffrey Chaucer
For evere it was, and evere it shal byfalle,
That Love is he that alle thing may bynde,
For may no man fordon the lawe of kynde.

Geoffrey Chaucer
A Somonour was ther with us in that place,
That hadde a fyr-reed cherubynnes face,
For saucefleem he was, with eyen narwe.
As hoot he was and lecherous as a sparwe.

Geoffrey Chaucer
It is no childes pley To take a wyf withouten avysement.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
Withinne 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;
Eek for to winne love in sondry ages,
In sondry londes, sondry ben usages.

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

Geoffrey Chaucer
The lyf so short, the craft so longe to lerne.
Th' assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge,
The dredful joye, alwey that slit so yerne;
Al this mene I be love.

Geoffrey Chaucer
For he that naught n' assaieth, naught
n' acheveth.

Geoffrey Chaucer
For gold in phisike is a cordial;
Therefore he loved gold in special.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Ye knowe ek that in forme of speche is chaunge
Withinne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden pris, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem, and yet thei spake hem so.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Redeth the grete poete of Ytaille
That highte Dant, for he kan al devyse
Fro point to point; nat o word wol he faille.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swych licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.

Geoffrey Chaucer
For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophie,
Than robes riche, or fidel, or sautrie.
But all be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.

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

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

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

Geoffrey Chaucer
Wel loved he garleek, oynons, and eek lekes,
And for to drynken strong wyn, reed as blood.

Geoffrey Chaucer
May, with alle thy floures and thy grene, Welcome be thou, faire, fresshe May.

Geoffrey Chaucer
Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynogh for me
To speke of wo that is in mariage.

Geoffrey Chaucer
She was a prymerole, a piggesnye,
For any lord to leggen in his bedde.

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

Geoffrey Chaucer