Geoffrey Chaucer: Man

Geoffrey Chaucer was English poet. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Geoffrey Chaucer: 198 quotes39 likes

“No empty handed man can lure a bird”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

Source: The Canterbury Tales

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

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

The Knight's Tale, l. 1181-1182
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….”

Geoffrey Chaucer

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

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

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

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

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

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

“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.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 733
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.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 3, line 1625-1628
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

“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