Quotes from Geoffrey Chaucer

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.

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.

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.

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.

This noble example to his sheep he [the Parson] gave | that first he wrought, and afterwards he taught.

And, in his noble heart, he pondered a moment and then soft unto himself he said, "Fie upon a Lord that will show no mercy, but will be as a lion, in word and in deed, both to those who are remorseful and afeared, as well as to the haughty unrepentant man, and who will judge the guilty and the innocent alike. That Lord has little of discernment, who, in such a case, knows of no distinction, but weighs arrogance and humility upon an equal scale.

Los amigos que un hombre hace en la prosperidad creo que le convertirán en enemigos en la adversidad

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.

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.

Lost money is not lost beyond recall, But loss of time brings on the loss of all.

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.

Amor vincit omnia: Love conquers all.

El amor es una cosa tan libre como el espíritu.

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.

A knowing wife if she is worth her salt Can always prove her husband is at fault, And even though the fellow may have heard Some story told him by a little bird She knows enough to prove the bird is crazy And get her maid to witness she's a daisy

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.

For Solomon says, 'He who loves peril shall be vanquished by peril.

And what a shame it is, if a Priest took not prudent care, to witness a shitty shepherd shepherding unsullied sheep.

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.

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.

or that he is a talker of idle words of folly or of villainy ..also when he promises or assures to do things that he can not perform; also when that he by frivolity or folly slanders or scorns his neighbor; also when he has any wicked suspicion of thing where he knows of it no truthfulness: these things, and more without number, are sins

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!

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.

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.