Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.”
-- Geoffrey ChaucerSource : Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Tyrwhitt (1830). “The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer: With an Essay on His Language and Versification, an Introductory Discourse, Notes, and a Glossary by Tho. Tyrwhitt”, p.94
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“The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.”
-- Geoffrey ChaucerSource : The Parliament of Fowls l. 1 (1380 - 1386)
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“Every honest miller has a golden thumb.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
“That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
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“There was the murdered corpse, in covert laid, And violent death in thousand shapes displayed; The city to the soldier's rage resigned; Successless wars, and poverty behind; Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores, And the rash hunter strangled by the boars; The newborn babe by nurses overlaid; And the cook caught within the raging fire he made.”
-- 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 -
“One flesh they are; and one flesh, so I'd guess, Has but one heart, come grief or happiness.”
-- 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 -
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“Patience is a conquering virtue.”
-- Geoffrey ChaucerSource : Geoffrey Chaucer (1966). “The Canterbury Tales”
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“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 -
“Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.”
-- 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 -
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“Death is the end of every worldly pain.”
-- 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 -
“Nature, the vicar of the Almighty Lord.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
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“The smylere with the knyf under the cloke.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
“To keep demands as much skill as to win.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
“And brought of mighty ale a large quart.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
“The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
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“For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
“Yblessed be god that I have wedded fyve! Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.”
-- 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 -
“The guilty think all talk is of themselves.”
-- Geoffrey ChaucerSource : Geoffrey Chaucer (1966). “The Canterbury Tales”
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“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 -
“To maken vertue of necessite.”
-- 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 -
“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 -
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“One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance.”
-- Geoffrey Chaucer -
“For there is one thing I can safely say: that those bound by love must obey each other if they are to keep company long. Love will not be constrained by mastery; when mastery comes, the God of love at once beats his wings, and farewell he is gone. Love is a thing as free as any spirit; women naturally desire liberty, and not to be constrained like slaves; and so do men, if I shall tell the truth.”
-- Geoffrey ChaucerSource : Geoffrey Chaucer (2006). “The Canterbury Tales”, p.451, Bantam Classics
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