Top 200 Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Lat take a cat, and fostre him wel with milk, And tendre flesh, and make his couche of silk, And let him seen a mous go by the wal; Anon he weyveth milk, and flesh, and al, And every deyntee that is in that hous, Swich appetyt hath he to ete a mous.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

102. “The guilty think all talk is of themselves.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

103. “Thus in this heaven he took his delight And smothered her with kisses upon kisses Till gradually he came to know where bliss is.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

104. “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;.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

105. “Thou shalt make castels thanne in Spayne And dreme of joye, all but in vayne.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

106. “Abstinence is approved of God.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

109. “Murder will out, this my conclusion.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

110. “By nature, men love newfangledness.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

111. “If a man really loves a woman, of course he wouldn’t marry her for the world if he were not quite sure that he was the best person she could possibly marry.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

112. “Be nat wrooth, my lord, though that I pleye. Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd seye!”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

113. “In general, women desire to rule over their husbands and lovers, to be the authority above them.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

114. “Certes, they been lye to hounds, for an hound when he cometh by the roses, or by other bushes, though he may nat pisse, yet wole he heve up his leg and make a countenance to pisse.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

116. “Yblessed be god that I have wedded fyve! Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

117. “Everybody wants to go to the Super Bowl. Nobody wants to run laps.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

118. “One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

119. “So was hir jolly whistel wel y-wette.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

122. “La moraleja de todas las tragedias es la misma: que la Fortuna siempre ataca a los reinos prepotentes cuando menos lo esperan.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

123. “The bisy larke, messager of day.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

124. “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.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

126. “Til that the brighte sonne loste his hewe; For th’orisonte hath reft the sonne his lyght; This is as muche to seye as it was nyght!”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

127. “It is nought good a sleping hound to wake.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

128. “For he would rather have, by his bedside, twenty books, bound in black or red, of Aristotle and his philosophy, than rich robes or costly fiddles or gay harps.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

129. “Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

130. “That of all the floures in the mede, Thanne love I most these floures white and rede, Suche as men callen daysyes in her toune.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

131. “But al be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

133. “Fo lo, the gentil kind of the lioun! For when a flye offendeth him or byteth, He with his tayl awey the flye smyteth Al esily, for, of his genterye, Him deyneth net to wreke him on a flye, As cloth a curre or elles another beste.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

134. “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

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

136. “Woe to him who is alone, since, if he falls, he has no help to rise.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

137. “To keep demands as much skill as to win.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

138. “By Pluto sent at the request of Saturn. Arcita’s horse in terror danced a pattern And leapt aside and foundered as he leapt, And ere he was aware Arcite was swept Out of the saddle and pitched upon his head Onto the ground, and there he lay for dead; His breast was shattered by the saddle-bow.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

139. “But we’ll try anything once hot or cold; A man must be a young food, or an old.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

141. “In love there is but little rest.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

142. “For naturally a beast desires to flee From any enemy that he may see, Though never yet he’s clapped on such his eye.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

143. “Truly she was of elegant deportment, and very pleasing and amiable in bearing. She took pains to counterfeit the manners of the court and to be dignified in behavior and to be held worthy of reverence.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

144. “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.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

145. “Trouthe is the hyest thyng that man may kepe.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

146. “In general, my liege lady,’ he began, ‘Women desire to have dominion Over their husbands, and their lovers too; They want to have mastery over them. That’s what you most desire – even if my life Is forfeit. I am here; do what you like.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

148. “A faithful servant is more diligent in keeping your goods safe than is your own wife, because she will claim a half part of your worth all her life.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

149. “Till we be roten, kan we not be rypen?”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

150. “And when a beest is deed, he hath no peyne; But man after his deeth moot wepe and pleyne.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer