Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

"la virtud que corona la perfección es la paciencia".

High in moral virtue was his speech, and gladly would he learn and gladly teach.

Lo, which a greet thing is affeccioun!
Men may die of imaginacioun,
So depe may impressioun be take.

Throgh me men gon into that blysful place
Of hertes hele and dedly woundes cure;
Thorgh me men gon unto the welle of grace,
There grene and lusty May shal evere endure.
This is the wey to al good aventure.
Be glad, thow redere, and thy sorwe of-caste;
Al open am I - passe in, and sped thee faste!'

'Thorgh me men gon,' than spak that other side,
'Unto the mortal strokes of the spere
Of which Disdayn and Daunger is the gyde,
There nevere tre shal fruyt ne leves bere.
This strem yow ledeth to the sorweful were
There as the fish in prisoun is al drye;
The'eschewing is only the remedye!

So astute was he in his buying and selling, and in his borrowings, that no one knew if he was in debt.

This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart
As greet as it had been a thonder-dent,
That with the strook he was almoost yblent;
And he was redy with his iren hoot,
And Nicholas amydde the ers he smoot.
Of gooth the skyn an hande-brede aboute,
The hoote kultour brende so his toute,
And for the smert he wende for to dye.

Well is it said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour.

Ye sey right sooth; this Monk he clappeth lowde.
He spak how Fortune covered with a clowde
I noot nevere what; and als of a tragedie
Right now ye herde, and pardee, no remedie
It is for to biwaille ne compleyne
That that is doon, and als it is a peyne,
As ye han seyd, to heere of hevynesse.
Sire Monk, namoore of this, so God yow blesse!
Youre tale anoyeth al this compaignye.
Swich talkyng is nat worth a boterflye,

"Full is my heart of revelry and grace." But suddenly he fell in grievous case; For ever the latter end of joy is woe. God knows that worldly joys do swiftly go; And if a rhetorician could but write, He in some chronicle might well indite And mark it down as sovereign in degree.

Well did he know the taverns in every town, and every hosteller and bar-maid, far better than he knew any leper or beggar.

Men may the wise atrenne, and naught atrede.

Alas the day that gave me birth!
Worse than my prison is the endless earth,
now I am doomed eternally to dwell,
not in purgatory, but in hell

"For thus men seyth, "That on thenketh the beere,
But al another thenketh his ledere.

And Christ’s law and His Apostles twelve he taught, but first he followed it himself.

you will not be master of my body & my property