Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

For sondry scoles maken sotile clerkis;
Womman of manye scoles half a clerk is.

Jesús de Sirach afirma: «Quien tiene el corazón alegre y contento se conserva vigoroso a través de los años, pero un corazón entristecido reseca los huesos».

Upon his arm he bare a gay bracer*, *small shield And by his side a sword and a buckler, And on that other side a gay daggere, Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spear:

You fare by love as owls do by light.

He was an easy man to mete out Penance when a good gift he expected to receive. Forsooth, to donate generously unto a poor Order is a sign that a man is well shriven. For if a man gave, the Friar dared to assert, he knew that the man was repentant. So hard is the heart of many a man that he cannot weep, though he may sorely suffer for his sins. Therefore, in the stead of weeping and praying, men must give silver to the poor Friars.

But of no nombre mencioun made he, Of bigamye, or of octogamye33. Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileinye34?

nadie debe echar sobre sus espaldas fardo que no pueda llevar.

But we'll try anything once hot or cold; A man must be a young food, or an old

It is ful fair a man to bere him evene,/For alday meeteth men at unset stevene.

Go, litel bok, go, litel myn tragedye,

Go litel bok, go, litel myn tragedye,
Ther God thi makere yet, er that he dye,
So sende myght to make in som comedye!
But litel book, no makyng thow n'envie,
But subgit be to alle poesye;
And kis the steppes where as thow seest pace
Virgile, Ovide, Omer, Lucan, and Stace.

There in the sun; and Chanticleer so free Sang merrier than a mermaid in the sea (For Physiologus says certainly That they do sing, both well and merrily).

Till we be roten, kan we not be rypen?

"Just as there never died a man," quoth he, "But he had lived on earth in some degree, Just so there never lived a man," he said, "In all this world, but must be sometime dead. This world is but a thoroughfare of woe, And we are pilgrims passing to and fro;"

El hombre favorecido por la Fortuna se convierte en un imbécil integral.