Top 200 Geoffrey Chaucer Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Speak we now of wicked counsel, for he who gives wicked counsel is a traitor. He deceives the one who trusted in him, as Achitophel did unto Absalom. But, nevertheless, his wicked counsel is first against himself. For, as says the Wise Man, “Every deceitful liar has this property in himself: that he who would harm another man, he harms himself first.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

202. “Alas, a foul thing it is, by my faith, to say this word, and fouler is the deed, when a man drinks so much of the white wine and red that, of his throat he makes a privy, because of this accursed excess.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

203. “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

204. “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

205. “For Solomon says that, ‘He who is not patient shall meet with great harm.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

206. “And, therefore, I pray God both day and night that, to a wrathful man, He send but little might. It is a great harm and, for certain, a great misfortune to place an angry man in high position.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

207. “What difference is there betwixt an idolater and an avaricious man, but that the idolater has, perhaps, one or two idols, whereas the avaricious man has many?”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

208. “And, furthermore, wherever they go, men may know these Alchemists by the smell of brimstone. For all the world, they stink as does a goat. Their reek is so pungent and so rancid that, though a man be a mile from them, the foul stench will infect him, trust me.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

209. “For the common proverb says thus, ‘He who judges in haste shall soon repent.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

210. “But you worshipful religious Canons, do not deem that I slander your order, although my tale may be of a Canon. In every order there is some miscreant, pardon me, and God forbid that all a company should rue a single man’s folly.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

211. “And Solomon says, ‘Fortunate is the man who is in dread of all, because he who possesses a fearless heart and a strong body will presume too much, and misfortune shall befall him.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

212. “For, inasmuch as the good works that men do while they live the virtuous life be slain by the Sin following, and also since all the good works that men do while they be in deadly Sin are utterly dead as for to have the life everlasting, well may the man who does no good works sing that new French song, “I have wasted all my time and my labor.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

213. “With all humility and abstinence, with all temperance and patience, with modest bearing and appearance was she. Discreet in answering was she always.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

214. “Nay, Sir, not of love,” said he, “but a tale shall I relate as best I can, with hearty good will. I shall not disobey your request. Excuse me if I speak amiss. My intention is good. And, lo, my tale is this.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

215. “Lo, what says Saint Augustine: “There is nothing so like the Devil’s child as he who oft chides others.” Saint Paul also says, “It behooves the servant of God not to chide.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

216. “You Fathers and you Mothers, let me add, However many children you have had, Yours is the duty of their supervision As long as they are bound by your decision. Beware lest the example you present Or your neglect in giving chastisement Cause them to perish; otherwise I fear, If they should do so, you will pay it dear.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

217. “Lo, what a powerful thing is emotion! Men may die of imagination, so profoundly can a notion afflict the mind.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

218. “Now let us turn again to January, who, in the garden with his fair May, sang full merrier than the popinjay, “I love you best, and always shall, and I will love no other one.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

219. “Into two ranks did the armies dress themselves, and, when that their names were read aloud, so that in their numbers there would be no guile, each Knight did respond unto his name. Then were the gates shut, and then did the cry resound: “Do now your duty, young Knights proud!”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

220. “As Petrus Alphonsus says, ‘If you have the ability to do a thing of which you must later repent, “Nay” is better than “Yea.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

221. “The very eyeballs in your skull look dead.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

222. “This Palamon answered, “I do agree.” And, thus, did they part till the morrow, when each of them had pledged upon his faith to return. Oh, Cupid, who knows no Charity! Oh, Monarch, who reigns alone! Truly is it said that neither Love nor Lordship will willingly brook any challenge, as full well have Arcita and Palamon found.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

223. “This you may see that neither wisdom nor riches, beauty nor trickery, strength nor boldness may share power equally with Venus, for as she wishes she may guide the world.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

224. “For Solomon says, ‘He who loves peril shall be vanquished by peril.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

225. “Now malice is of two kinds; that is to say, hardness of heart in wickedness, or else the flesh of a man is so blind that he does not see that he is in Sin, or he cares not that he is in Sin, which is the hardness of the Devil. The other kind of malice is when a man wars against truth, when he knows that it is the truth.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

226. “Twelve years he reigned, as says the Book of Maccabees. He was the son of Philip of Macedonia, who was the first King of the country of Greece. O worthy, noble Alexander, alas, that ever such a fall should come to pass! Poisoned by your own people were you. Fortune did roll the dice to your disfavor, and for you she never wept a tear.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

227. “Why,” said this Summoner, “ride you then in sundry shapes, and not always in the same one?” “Because we will assume whatever form,” said the Fiend, “is most suitable to catch our prey.” “And what causes you to undertake all this labor?” asked the Summoner.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

228. “For Solomon says, “When you have no audience, do not try to speak.” Whereupon did this wise man say, “I see well that the common proverb is true, that ‘Good counsel is most wanting when it is most needed.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

229. “The fiery heat of love by now had cooled, for from the time he kissed her hinder parts, he didn’t give a tinker’s curse for tarts, his malady was cured by his endeavor, and he defied all paramours whatever.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

230. “Nor have you well taken heed of the words of Ovid, who says, ‘Under the honeyed enticements of the flesh is hidden the venom that slays the soul.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

231. “The Book says, ‘Whilst that you keep your counsel in your heart, you keep it in your prison, and, when you disclose your counsel unto any person, he holds you in his prison.’ And, therefore, it is better to hide your counsel in your heart, than entreat him to whom you have revealed your secret to keep it close and still. For Seneca says, ‘If it be so that you can not keep your own counsel, how can you then ask any person to keep your counsel hidden?”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

232. “Now that I have told you by whom you should be counseled, now will I teach you which counsel you ought to eschew. First, you must avoid the counseling of fools. For Solomon says, ‘Take no counsel from a fool, because he can offer no advice but that which follows from his own desires and his own interests.’ The Book says that, ‘The condition of a fool is this: he easily believes evil of every person, and easily believes all goodness is in himself.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

233. “Another Sin of Lechery is to bereave a Maiden of her maidenhead, for he who does so, certainly, casts a Maiden out of the highest degree that exists in this present life, and deprives her of that precious fruit that the Book calls the “Hundred Fruits.” I can not say it in any other way in English, but in Latin it is called Centesimus fructus.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

234. “These folk have little regard for how the Son of God rode upon an ass when He came down from Heaven. And He had no other harness but the clothing of His disciples. Nor do we read that He ever rode upon any other beast.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

235. “La avaricia es la causa de todos los vicios.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

236. “For Cato says that he who is guilty believes every one speaks only of him.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

237. “The youngest of the three, who went to the town, turned over full oft in his mind the beauty of those gold coins, new and bright. “O Lord,” said he, “if only it were so that I might have to myself all this treasure alone, there is no man who lives under the Throne of God who would be as merry as I!” And, at last, the Devil, our enemy, put into his thoughts that he should buy poison, with which he might slay his fellows two.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

238. “And take this for a general rule: Every counsel which is affirmed so strongly that it may not be changed for any condition that may befall, I say this counsel is wicked.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

239. “Another whispered low to his fellow, and said, “He is mistaken, for it is rather like an illusion created by some Sorcerer, as conjurers do at those great feasts.” Of sundry doubts did they thus chatter and debate, as ignorant people are wont to do about things that are crafted more cunningly than they can comprehend in their ignorance, and they usually expect the worst.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

240. “In the meanwhile this Yeoman began to smile. “Brother,” said he, “do you wish me to tell you? I am a Fiend. My dwelling is in Hell. And here on Earth I ride about looking for gain, to learn where men will give me any thing. My acquisitions are the sum of all my income. Look how you ride for the same intent. To gain money, you care not how. And so do I, for I would ride to the end of the World to catch my prey.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

241. “You go away,’ she answered, ’you Tom-fool! There’s no come-up-and-kiss-me here for you. I love another and why shouldn’t I too?”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

242. “He was broad and squat, with a thick neck; he could knock any door off its hinges, and would no doubt have excelled at that game the London apprentices play, known as ‘breaking doors with our heads’.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

243. “Things that have been foolishly done, in the hope of favorable Fortune, will never come to a good end.’ And, as the same Seneca says, ‘The more clear and the more shining that Fortune is, the more brittle and the sooner broken is she.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

244. “For Solomon says that, ‘The doctrine and the wit of a man is to be understood by his patience.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

245. “Just so, lo, thus does it fare with us. For he who seems the wisest, by Jesus, is the greatest fool, when it comes to the proof. And he who seems the most honest is a thief. That shall you come to know, ere that I leave you, when I have made an end of my tale.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

246. “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

247. “And Seneca says, ‘Whosoever would have wisdom shall disdain no man, but he shall gladly teach what he knows, without presumption or pride, and of such things as he does not know, he shall not be ashamed to learn them, and shall inquire of lesser folk than himself.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

248. “For the proverb says, ‘He who embraces too much, retains too little.’ And Cato says, ‘Assay to do only such a thing as you have the power to do, lest the burdensome charge oppress you so sorely that it behooves you to abandon the task you have begun.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer

249. “For Seneca says, ‘That man who is nourished by Fortune, she makes of him a great fool.”

— Geoffrey Chaucer