Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

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

All good things must come to an end.

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.

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.

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

Time and tide wait for no man.

The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.

Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.

Patience is a conquering virtue. The learned say that, if it not desert you, It vanquishes what force can never reach; Why answer back at every angry speech? No, learn forbearance or, I'll tell you what, You will be taught it, whether you will or not.

Many small make a great.

That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.

Women naturally desire the same six things as I; they want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous with money, obedient to the wife, and lively in bed.

Patience is a conquering virtue.

In April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower.

If a man really loves a woman, of course he wouldn't marry her for the world if he were not quite sure that he was the best person she could possibly marry.

Mercy surpasses justice.

In the stars is written the death of every man.

I wol yow telle, as was me taught also, The foure spirites and the bodies sevene, By ordre, as ofte I herde my lord hem nevene. The firste spirit quiksilver called is, The second orpiment, the thridde, ywis, Sal armoniak, and the firthe brimstoon. The bodies sevene eek, lo! hem heer anoon: Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe, Mars yron, Mercurie quiksilver we clepe, Saturnus leed, and Jupiter is tin, And Venus coper, by my fader kin!

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

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

The guilty think all talk is of themselves.

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

Who looks at me, beholdeth sorrows all, All pain, all torture, woe and all distress; I have no need on other harms to call, As anguish, languor, cruel bitterness, Discomfort, dread, and madness more and less; Methinks from heaven above the tears must rain In pity for my harsh and cruel pain.

And she was fair as is the rose in May.

Trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe.

And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other.

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.

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.

And then the wren gan scippen and to daunce.

Great peace is found in little busy-ness.

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.

Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.

Abstinence is approved of God.

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.

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

Harde is his heart that loveth nought In May.

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

Forbid us something, and that thing we desire.

For tyme ylost may nought recovered be.

Every honest miller has a golden thumb.

Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!

Look up on high, and thank the God of all.

Strike while the iron is hot.

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

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

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.

In love there is but little rest.

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

Many a true word is spoken in jest