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Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes
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Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten-year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales.

Chaucer's work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.

✵ 1343 – 25. October 1400  •  Other names Джеффри Чосер
Geoffrey Chaucer photo
Geoffrey Chaucer: 99 quotes39 likes

Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes

“But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught; but first he folwed it himselve.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 529
The Canterbury Tales

“For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophie,
Than robes riche, or fidel, or sautrie.
But all be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 295-300
The Canterbury Tales

“Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Reeve's Tale, l. 388
The Canterbury Tales

“Mordre wol out, that se we day by day.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Nun's Priest's Tale, l. 232
The Canterbury Tales

“They demen gladly to the badder end.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Squire's Tale, l. 10538
The Canterbury Tales

“To maken vertue of necessite.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Knight's Tale, l. 3044
The Canterbury Tales

“And for ther is so gret diversite
In Englissh and in writyng of oure tonge,
So prey I God that non myswrite the,
Ne the mysmetre for defaute of tonge;
And red wherso thow be, or elles songe,
That thow be understonde, God I biseche!”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 5, line 1793-1798
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde,
Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Clerk's Tale, l. 62-63
The Canterbury Tales

“But all thing which that shineth as the gold
Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Chanones Yemannes Tale, l. 16430
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales

“Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Knight's Tale, l. 2408
The Canterbury Tales

“And brought of mighty ale a large quart.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Miller's Tale, l. 3497
The Canterbury Tales

“Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 5, line 1798
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“For which he wex a litel red for shame,
Whan he the peple upon him herde cryen,
That to beholde it was a noble game,
How sobreliche he caste doun his yen.
Criseyda gan al his chere aspyen,
And let so softe it in her herte sinke
That to herself she seyde, “Who yaf me drinke?””

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 2, line 645-651
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“Harde is his herte that loveth nought
In Mey, …”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Romaunt of the Rose

The Romaunt of the Rose, Lines 85-86 http://books.google.com/books?id=bGhZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22harde+is+his+herte+that%22+%22nought+in+mey%22&pg=PA215#v=onepage

“That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Knight's Tale, l. 1524
The Canterbury Tales

“Or as an ook comth of a litel spir,
So thorugh this lettre, which that she hym sente,
Encressen gan desir, of which he brente.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 2, line 1335-37
The earliest known near-usage in English of the proverb "Great oaks from little acorns grow."
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“I am right sorry for your heavinesse.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 5, line 146
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 493
The Canterbury Tales

“Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book ii, line 470
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“For tyme y-lost may not recovered be.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 4, line 1283
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 3, line 764
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“Fie on possession,
But if a man be vertuous withal.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Franklin's Tale, l. 10998
The Canterbury Tales

“Soun is noght but air ybroken,
And every speche that is spoken,
Loud or privee, foul or fair,
In his substaunce is but air;
For as flaumbe is but lighted smoke,
Right so soun is air ybroke.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The House of Fame

The House of Fame, bk. 2, l. 257-62

“The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere,
Is to restreine and kepen wel thy tonge.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Manciples Tale, l. 17281
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales

“He coude songes make, and wel endite.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 95
The Canterbury Tales

“Eke wonder last but nine deies never in toun.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 4, line 525
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)

“In his owen grese I made him frie.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Reeve's Tale, l. 6069
The Canterbury Tales

“And for to see, and eek for to be seie.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6134
The Canterbury Tales

“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.”

Geoffrey Chaucer The Knight's Tale

The Knight's Tale, lV 2177 - 2186
The Canterbury Tales