Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
What's said is said and goes upon its way Like it or not, repent it as you may.
Take a cat, nourish it well with milk and tender meat, make it a couch of silk.
Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.
What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.
One shouldn't be too inquisitive in life Either about God's secrets or one's wife.
And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other.
How potent is the fancy! People are so impressionable, they can die of imagination.
But all thing which that shineth as the gold Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told.
Yblessed be god that I have wedded fyve! Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal.
Ek gret effect men write in place lite; Th'entente is al, and nat the lettres space.
But manly set the world on sixe and sevene; And, if thou deye a martir, go to hevene.
Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.
But Christ's lore and his apostles twelve, He taught and first he followed it himself.
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.
This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo, And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro.
For thogh we slepe, or wake, or rome, or ryde, Ay fleeth the tyme; it nyl no man abyde.
The handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us Most often are the very ones that end us.
And when a beest is deed, he hath no peyne; But man after his deeth moot wepe and pleyne.
One flesh they are; and one flesh, so I'd guess, Has but one heart, come grief or happiness.
In general, women desire to rule over their husbands and lovers, to be the authority above them.
One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance.
'My lige lady, generally,' quod he, 'Wommen desyren to have sovereyntee As well over hir housbond as hir love.'
Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed.
My house is small, but you are learned men And by your arguments can make a place Twenty foot broad as infinite as space.
He that loveth God will do diligence to please God by his works, and abandon himself, with all his might, well for to do.
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.
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.
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!
. . . if gold rust, what then will iron do?/ For if a priest be foul in whom we trust/ No wonder that a common man should rust. . . .
For of fortunes sharp adversitee The worst kynde of infortune is this, A man to han ben in prosperitee, And it remembren, whan it passed is.
One cannot scold or complain at every word. Learn to endure patiently, or else, as I live and breathe, you shall learn it whether you want or not.
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.
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.
For oute of olde feldys, as men sey, Comyth al this newe corn from yer to yere; And out of olde bokis, in good fey, Comyth al this newe science that men lere.
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.
Women naturally desire the same six things as I; they want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous with money, obedient to the wife, and lively in bed.
He who accepts his poverty unhurt I'd say is rich although he lacked a shirt. But truly poor are they who whine and fret and covet what they cannot hope to get.
By God, if women had written stories, As clerks had within here oratories, They would have written of men more wickedness Than all the mark of Adam may redress.
For out of old fields, as men saith, Cometh all this new corn from year to year; And out of old books, in good faith, Cometh all this new science that men learn.
Love will not be constrain'd by mastery. When mast'ry comes, the god of love anon Beateth his wings, and, farewell, he is gone. Love is a thing as any spirit free.
If no love is, O God, what fele I so? And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo? If it be wikke, a wonder thynketh me
Certain, when I was born, so long ago, Death drew the tap of life and let it flow; And ever since the tap has done its task, And now there's little but an empty cask.
For in their hearts doth Nature stir them so Then people long on pilgrimage to go And palmers to be seeking foreign strands To distant shrines renowned in sundry lands.
In April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower.
Alas, alas, that ever love was sin! I ever followed natural inclination Under the power of my constellation And was unable to deny, in truth, My chamber of Venus to a likely youth.
Yet do not miss the moral, my good men. For Saint Paul says that all that’s written well Is written down some useful truth to tell. Then take the wheat and let the chaff lie still.
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.
Soun is noght but air ybroken, And every speche that is spoken, Loud or privee, foul or fair, In his substaunce is but air; For as flaumbe is but lighted smoke, Right so soun is air ybroke.
Purity in body and heart May please some--as for me, I make no boast. For, as you know, no master of a household Has all of his utensils made of gold; Some are wood, and yet they are of use.
At the ches with me she (Fortune) gan to pleye; With her false draughts (pieces) dyvers/She staal on me, and took away my fers. And when I sawgh my fers awaye, Allas! I kouthe no lenger playe.