262 Quotes by Geoffrey Chaucer

Out of the gosple he tho wordes caughte,And this figure he added eek therto,That if gold ruste, what shal iren do?For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste,No wonder is a lewed man to ruste;And shame it is, if a prest take keep,A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep.Wel oghte a preest ensample for to yive,By his clennesse, how that his sheep sholde lyve.

Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so, And spedde as wel in love as men now do.

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken.

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.

And she was fair as is the rose in May.

For hym was levere have at his beddes heed Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophie, Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie.

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.

There's never a new fashion but it's old.