Top 200 Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “The time always flees; it will wait for no man. And through you are still in the flower of your young manhood, age creeps on steadily, as quiet as a stone, and death meanaces every age and strikes in every rank, for no one escapes. As surely as we know that we will die, so we are uncertain of the day when death shall fall on us.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

152. “And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

153. “Lust is addicted to novelty.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

154. “The remedy against the Sin of Pride. Now since it is so that you have understood what is Pride, and which are the kinds of it, and from whence Pride arises and springs, you shall understand what is the remedy against the Sin of Pride, and that is humility, or meekness. That is a virtue through which a man has true knowledge of himself, and holds himself to be of no import or esteem, considering always his frailty.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

155. “Wherever there is drunkenness about No secret can be hidden, make no doubt.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

156. “I know that my singing doesn’t make the moon rise, nor does it make the stars shine. But without my song, the night would seem empty and incomplete. There is more to daybreak than light, just as there is more to nighttime than darkness.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

157. “Take a cat, nourish it well with milk and tender meat, make it a couch of silk...”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

158. “I am right sorry for your heavinesse.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

159. “A priest should take to heart the shameful scene of shepards filthy while the sheep are clean.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Geoffrey Chaucer

162. “Felds hath eyen, and wode have eres.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

163. “To maken vertue of necessite.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

164. “Three years went by in happiness and health; He bore himself so well in peace and war That there was no one Theseus valued more.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

165. “That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

166. “His spirit changed house, and vanished there, Where I have not been, so cannot say where.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

167. “One eare it heard, at the other out it went.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

168. “So astute was he in his buying and selling, and in his borrowings, that no one knew if he was in debt.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

169. “And brought of mighty ale a large quart.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

170. “You are the cause by which I die.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

171. “With emptie hands men may no haukes lure.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

172. “Now, my friends, keep you from the white and from the red, and especially from the white wine of Spain that is for sale in the streets of London. This wine of Spain creeps subtly into other wines, which are grown nearby, from which there rise such fumes to the head that, when a man has drunk three draughts and thinks he is at home in London, he is in Spain, right at the town of Lepe – not in La Rochelle, nor at Bordeaux town – and then will he drunkenly say, “Samson, Samson!”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

173. “Yet from the wise take this for common sense That to the poor all times are out of joint Therefore beware of reaching such a point.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

174. “Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

175. “One night the citizens of Rome revolted Against his tyrannies and mad ambition And, when he heard them mutiny, he bolted Alone and sought his friends for coalition. The more he knocked and begged them for admission The more they shut their doors and said him nay. And then he saw that of his own perdition He was sole author and he fled away. The people yelled for him and rumbled round So that their shouts were dinning in his ear: ‘Where’s Nero? Where’s the tyrant? Treacherous hound!”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

176. “But of no nombre mencioun made he, Of bigamye, or of octogamye33. Why sholde men thanne speke of it vileinye34?”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

177. “And Christ’s law and His Apostles twelve he taught, but first he followed it himself.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

178. “The Pardoner’s Prologue Here follows the Prologue of the Pardoner’s Tale. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” 1 Timothy 6:10 “My Lords,” said the Pardoner, “in Churches, when I preach, I take pains to speak with a resounding voice and have my words ring out as loud as a bell, for I know by rote all that I expound. My text is always the same, and ever was – the love of money is the root of all evil.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

179. “For the Wise Man says, “If you fight with a fool, whether the fool be angry or merry, you will never have rest.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

180. “He who is accustomed to this Sin of Gluttony may no Sin withstand. He must be in bondage to all vices, for it is in the Devil’s hoard where he hides himself and takes his rest.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

181. “Whether because of anger, sickness, the position of the stars, wine, woe, or a change in temperament, something does cause us full oft to say or do an untoward thing. A man may not wreak vengeance for every wrong. Temperance must be determined, according to the occasion, by every person of good judgment. And, therefore, did this wise, worthy Knight, in order to live in harmony, promise forbearance unto her, and she unto him truly swore that never would he find fault in her.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

182. “Of Pride. And though it be so that no man can accurately tell the number of the twigs and the evils that come from Pride, yet will I show you a part of them, as you shall understand. There is Disobedience, Boasting, Hypocrisy, Contempt, Arrogance, Impudence, Swelling of Heart, Insolence, Elation, Impatience, Haughtiness, Presumption, Irreverence, Obstinacy, Vainglory, and many another twig that I can not declare.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

183. “You fare by love as owls do by light.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

184. “For every mortal man’s power is but like a bladder full of wind, for certain. When it is blown up, the simple prick of a needle point can deflate the pompous pride of it.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

185. “Look well that you unto no vice assent, lest you be damned for your evil intent. For she who does so is a traitor, certainly. And take heed of what I shall say: of all the treasons, the greatest wickedness is the betrayal of innocence.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

186. “The greatest Scholars are not the wisest men,’ as once unto the wolf thus spoke the mare. Of all their artifice, I account not a whit.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

187. “Los timadores, al final, acaban siendo ellos mismos timados.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

188. “For the law says that, ‘He is culpable who interferes with, or meddles with, such thing as appertains not unto him.’ And Solomon says that, ‘He who meddles in the noise and strife of another man is like unto him who takes a hound by the ears.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

189. “The Wife of Bath A good Wife was there from Bath. She was somewhat deaf, and that was a pity. Of cloth-making had she such a skill that she surpassed even the weavers of Ypres and of Ghent. In all the Parish there was no Wife who dared precede her to the offering at Mass; and, if perchance one did, it was certain so wrathful was she that she forgot all thoughts of charity.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

190. “To these words answered Melibee unto his wife Prudence, “All your words are true, and therefore profitable. But, truly, mine heart is troubled with this sorrow so grievously that I know not what to do.” “Summon all your true friends,” said Prudence, “and your kinsmen who are wise. Tell them your case and hearken unto what they say in counseling, and govern yourself according to their advice. Solomon says, ‘Do nothing without counsel, and you shall never repent of it.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

191. “For as I may be saved by God above, I never used discretion when in love But ever followed on my appetite, Whether the lad was short, long, black or white. Little I cared, if he was fond of me, How poor he was, or what his rank might be.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

192. “Lo, what said King Solomon, who can teach us so well? ‘Do not befriend an angry man, and walk not along the way with a madman, lest you repent.’ I will no further say.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

193. “Ah! Nay! Let it be. The Philosopher’s Stone is what we seek, everyone. For, if we had it, we could then transmute lead into gold, and then would we be safe enough. But, unto God in Heaven, I do avow, in spite of all our craft, and all our efforts, and all our magic, the Stone will not come to us.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

194. “Here is ended the Prioress’s Tale.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

195. “A great fool is any counselor, serving a Lord of high honor, who dares presume, or even think, that his counsel should surpass his Lord’s wit.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

196. “He who covets is a poor wretch, because he longs for what he can not have. But he who has naught, and covets naught, is rich, although you may think him but a lowly knave.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

197. “Here may men see how Sin will reap his reward. Beware, for no man knows whom God will smite, nor when, nor in which manner. The worm of conscience will burrow deep within and terrify the wicked soul, though his evil be so secret that no man knows thereof but God and he. For, be he ignorant or learned, he knows not when Death will overtake him. Therefore, I advise you this counsel to take: forsake Sin, or Sin will leave you forsaken.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

198. “Lo, lo,” said Lady Prudence, “how easily is every man inclined to his own desire and to his own pleasure. Surely, the words of the Physicians should not be understood in this way. For certain, wickedness is not the contrary of wickedness, nor vengeance the contrary of vengeance, nor wrong the contrary of wrong, for, in fact, they are the same. And, therefore, one vengeance is not cured by another vengeance, nor one wrong by another wrong, but each one of them increases and aggravates the other.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

199. “I will tell you, as it was taught to me, the four spirits and the seven bodies, by order, as I oft heard my Master name them. The first spirit is called quicksilver, the second is arsenic, the third is sal ammoniac, and the fourth is brimstone. The seven bodies, lo, are here anon: the Sun is gold, the Moon is silver, Mars is iron, Mercury is quicksilver, Saturn is lead, Jupiter is tin, and Venus is copper.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

200. “Now let us touch on the vice of Flattery, which comes not gladly from the heart, but from fear or greed. Flattery is generally insincere praise. Flatterers be the Devil’s nurses, who nourish his children with the milk of adulation.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer