Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

“For gold in phisike is a cordial;
Therefore he loved gold in special.”

Source: The Canterbury Tales

“Allas! allas! that evere love was synne!”

General Prologue, l. 445
The Canterbury Tales

“Patience is a conquering virtue.”

The Wife of Bath's Prologue, l. 614
The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer: Trending quotes

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Expierience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”

“He helde about him alway, out of drede,
A world of folke.”

“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.”

Book 3, line 1721
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

“And therfore, at the kynges court, my brother,
Ech man for hymself, ther is noon other.”

Book 5, line 1835-1841
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
Context: 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.

“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”

The Knight's Tale, l. 1181-1182
The Canterbury Tales

“This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo,
And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro”

Book 2, line 22-28
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
Context: 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.

“Thanne is it wysdom, as it thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessity,”

The Knight's Tale, lV, 1990 - 1992
The Canterbury Tales
Context: This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo,
And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro;
Deeth is an ende of every worldly soore.

“But yet that holden this tale a folly,
As of a fox, or of a cock and hen,
Taketh the morality, good men.
For Saint Paul saith that all that written is,
To our doctrine it is y-writ, ywis;
Taketh the fruit, and let the chaff be still.”

The Knight's Tale, lV 2177 - 2186
The Canterbury Tales
Context: p>What maketh this, but Juppiter the kyng,
That is prince and cause of alle thyng
Convertynge al unto his propre welle
From which it is deryved, sooth to telle,
And heer-agayns no creature on lyve
Of no degree availleth for to strive.Thanne is it wysdom, as it thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessity,
And take it weel, that we may nat eschue;
And namely, that to us alle is due.</p

“Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”

The Nun's Priest's Tale, l. 672-677
The Canterbury Tales

“the greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people”

“Forbid Us Something and That Thing we Desire”

The Reeve's Tale, l. 134
The Canterbury Tales
Variant: The gretteste clerkes been noght wisest men.
Source: The Complete Poetry and Prose

“Purity in body and heart
May please some--as for me, I make no boast.
For, as you know, no master of a household
Has all of his utensils made of gold;
Some are wood, and yet they are of use.”

“Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”

Source: The Canterbury Tales

“… if gold rust, what then will iron do?/ For if a priest be foul in whom we trust/ No wonder that a common man should rust….”

General Prologue, l. 305 - 310
Source: The Canterbury Tales
Context: Of studie took he most cure and most hede.
Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

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

“Ful wys is he that kan hymselven knowe!”

“the guilty think all talk is of themselves.”

The Monk's Tale, l. 3329
The Canterbury Tales
Source: The Riverside Chaucer

“all that glitters is not gold”

“Therfore bihoveth hire a ful long spoon
That shal ete with a feend.”

Source: The Canterbury Tales

“Your duty is, as ferre as I can gesse.”

The Squire's Tale, l. 594-95
The Canterbury Tales

“He was a verray, parfit gentil knyght.”

The Court of Love, line 178
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.”

General Prologue, l. 72
The Canterbury Tales

“Forbede us thing, and that desiren we;
Preesse on us faste, and thanne wol we flee.
With daunger oute we al oure chaffare:
Greet prees at market maketh dere ware,
And too greet chepe is holden at litel pris.”

The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6752
The Canterbury Tales

“Oon ere it herde, at tothir out it wente”

The Wife of Bath's Prologue, l. 525-529
The Canterbury Tales

“Loke who that is most vertuous alway,
Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay
To do the gentil dedes that he can,
And take him for the gretest gentilman.”

One ear heard it, at the other out it went
Book 4, line 434
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“Nature, the vicar of the Almightie Lord.”

The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6695
The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer book Parlement of Foules

Parlement of Foules, l. 379

“A Clerk ther was of Oxenforde also.”

“Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.”

General Prologue, l. 287
The Canterbury Tales

“Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake.”

The Franklin's Tale, l. 11789
The Canterbury Tales

“O little booke, thou art so unconning,
How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?”

Source: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales, L. 1201

“Up rose the sonne, and up rose Emelie.”

The Flower and the Leaf, line 59
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Ful weel she soong the service dyvyne,
Entuned in hir nose ful semely,
And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly,
After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe.”

The Knight's Tale, l. 2275
The Canterbury Tales

“The gretest clerkes ben not the wisest men.”

General Prologue, l. 122-126
The Canterbury Tales

“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.”

The Reeve's Tale, l. 4051
The Canterbury Tales

“And yet he had a thomb of gold parde.”

General Prologue, l. 1-12
The Canterbury Tales

“Certes, they been lyk to houndes, for an hound whan he comth by the roser, or by other bushes, though he may nat pisse, yet wole he heve up his leg and make a contenaunce to pisse.”

General Prologue, l. 565; referencing the proverb, "Every honest miller has a golden thumb".
The Canterbury Tales

“Nowher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
And yet he semed bisier than he was.”

The Parson's Tale, sect. 77
The Canterbury Tales

“For I am shave as neigh as any frere.
But yit I praye unto youre curteisye:
Beeth hevy again, or elles moot I die.”

About the Sergeant of Law
General Prologue, l. 323-324
The Canterbury Tales

“The smylere with the knyf under the cloke.”

The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse, l. 19–21

“Who so shall telle a tale after a man,
He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can,
Everich word, if it be in his charge,
All speke he never so rudely and so large;
Or elles he moste tellen his tale untrewe,
Or feinen thinges, or finden wordes newe.”

The Knight's Tale, l. 1141
The Canterbury Tales

“This flour of wifly patience.”

General Prologue, l. 733
The Canterbury Tales

“The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.”

The Clerk's Tale, part v., l. 8797
The Canterbury Tales

“His studie was but litel on the Bible.”

Persones Tale
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales

“So was hire joly whistle wel ywette.”

General Prologue, l. 440
The Canterbury Tales

“I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but on hole for to sterten to.”

The Reeve's Tale, l. 4153
The Canterbury Tales

“Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be,
That may bothe werke wel and hastily.”

The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6154
The Canterbury Tales

“Ther n' is no werkman whatever he be,
That may both werken wel and hastily. 4
This wol be done at leisure parfitly.”

The Merchant's Tale, l. 1832-1833
The Canterbury Tales

“This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf, —
That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught.”

The Merchant's Tale, l. 585
The Canterbury Tales

“For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
The seson priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte.”

General Prologue, l. 498
The Canterbury Tales

“And of his port as meke as is a mayde.”

General Prologue, l. 1044
The Canterbury Tales

“For iii may keep a counsel if twain be away.”

General Prologue, l. 69
The Canterbury Tales

“For of fortunes sharp adversitee
The worst kynde of infortune is this,
A man to han ben in prosperitee,
And it remembren, whan it passed is.”

The Ten Commandments of Love
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)