Works
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey ChaucerTroilus and Criseyde
Geoffrey Chaucer
Parlement of Foules
Geoffrey Chaucer
The House of Fame
Geoffrey ChaucerThe Knight's Tale
Geoffrey ChaucerThe Romaunt of the Rose
Geoffrey ChaucerFamous Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes
Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes about men
The Knight's Tale, IV, 1919 - 1921
The Canterbury Tales
The Franklin's Tale, l. 767-770
The Canterbury Tales
Prologue of the Legend of Good Women, line 183
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Prologue of the Legend of Good Women, line 41
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Men sholde wedden after hir estat,
For youthe and elde is often at debat.”
The Miller's Tale, l. 121-122
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes about love
Parlement of Foules, l. 1-4; comparable with Hippocrates, Aphorisms 1:1
Source: The Parliament of Birds
“Eek for to winne love in sondry ages,
In sondry londes, sondry ben usages.”
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.
Book 2, line 22-28
“For gold in phisike is a cordial;
Therefore he loved gold in special.”
General Prologue, l. 445
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer: Trending quotes
“He helde about him alway, out of drede,
A world of folke.”
Book 3, line 1721
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes
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.
“And therfore, at the kynges court, my brother,
Ech man for hymself, ther is noon other.”
The Knight's Tale, l. 1181-1182
The Canterbury Tales
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.
“This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo,
And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro”
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.
“Thanne is it wysdom, as it thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessity,”
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
The Nun's Priest's Tale, l. 672-677
The Canterbury Tales
“the greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people”
The Reeve's Tale, l. 134
The Canterbury Tales
Variant: The gretteste clerkes been noght wisest men.
Source: The Complete Poetry and Prose
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.
“Ful wys is he that kan hymselven knowe!”
The Monk's Tale, l. 3329
The Canterbury Tales
Source: The Riverside Chaucer
“Therfore bihoveth hire a ful long spoon
That shal ete with a feend.”
The Squire's Tale, l. 594-95
The Canterbury Tales
“Your duty is, as ferre as I can gesse.”
The Court of Love, line 178
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
The Wife of Bath's Prologue, l. 525-529
The Canterbury Tales
“Oon ere it herde, at tothir out it wente”
One ear heard it, at the other out it went
Book 4, line 434
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6695
The Canterbury Tales
“Nature, the vicar of the Almightie Lord.”
Parlement of Foules, l. 379
“Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.”
The Franklin's Tale, l. 11789
The Canterbury Tales
“Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake.”
Source: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales, L. 1201
“O little booke, thou art so unconning,
How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?”
The Flower and the Leaf, line 59
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“The gretest clerkes ben not the wisest men.”
The Reeve's Tale, l. 4051
The Canterbury Tales
General Prologue, l. 1-12
The Canterbury Tales
“And yet he had a thomb of gold parde.”
General Prologue, l. 565; referencing the proverb, "Every honest miller has a golden thumb".
The Canterbury Tales
The Parson's Tale, sect. 77
The Canterbury Tales
“Nowher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
And yet he semed bisier than he was.”
About the Sergeant of Law
General Prologue, l. 323-324
The Canterbury Tales
The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse, l. 19–21
General Prologue, l. 733
The Canterbury Tales
“This flour of wifly patience.”
The Clerk's Tale, part v., l. 8797
The Canterbury Tales
“The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.”
Persones Tale
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales
“His studie was but litel on the Bible.”
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 Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6154
The Canterbury Tales
“Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be,
That may bothe werke wel and hastily.”
The Merchant's Tale, l. 1832-1833
The Canterbury Tales
The Merchant's Tale, l. 585
The Canterbury Tales
“This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf, —
That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught.”
General Prologue, l. 498
The Canterbury Tales
General Prologue, l. 1044
The Canterbury Tales
“For iii may keep a counsel if twain be away.”
The Ten Commandments of Love
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Book 3, line 1625-1628
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
