Chaucer Quotes

“Patience is a conquering virtue.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer

“I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.”
― Brian Helgeland, A Knight's Tale: The Shooting Script

“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.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

“Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was expected to clock in at anywhere between 100 and 120 chapters. Unfortunately, the dude only managed to finish 24 tales before he suffered an insurmountable and permanent state of writer's block commonly known as death.”
― Jacopo della Quercia

“Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ masterfully explores the theme of self-deception and the intricate dynamics of marital relationships. As the narrative unfolds, it illuminates the ironic nature of marriage, where love and treachery often coexist. By restoring January’s sight, Chaucer metaphorically portrays his willful ignorance, allowing him to live in blissful ignorance of his wife’s infidelity. This allegory provokes readers to question the nature of self-deception and the precarious illusions individuals construct in their pursuit of happiness within the confines of marriage.

‘The Merchant’s Tale’ serves as a cautionary tale, addressing the complexities and pitfalls of love, trust, and the frailties of human nature. Chaucer’s exploration of self-deception requires readers to critically examine the choices and illusions woven throughout the tale, shedding light on the paradoxical nature of love and marriage. Through this literary masterpiece, Chaucer prompts us to question the realities of our own lives, reminding us of the delicate balance between truth and the seductive allure of self-imposed blindness. (from an article titled "Chaucer’s ‘The Merchant’s Tale’: Unveiling the Harsh Realities of Matrimony")”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“Chese now," quod she, "oon of thise thynges tweye:
To han me foul and old til that I deye,
And be to yow a trewe, humble wyf,
And nevere yow displese in al my lyf,
Or elles ye wol han me yong and fair,
And take youre aventure of the repair
That shal be to youre hous by cause of me,
Or in som oother place, may wel be.
Now chese yourselven, wheither that yow liketh.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath

“Not knowing, in his misery, for the nonce,
What he was doing, he rushed away at once”
― Chaucer Geoffry Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

“The very eyeballs in your skull look dead.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

“A sack of sage, satire, irony and humor
How healthy looms the Chaucer’s loomer
Couplet by Mk Bhutta”
― Lecturer M K Bhutta Poet

“She had devoted time to improving her reading and was now more than proficient. The shelf she'd first cleared with Bianca overflowed with tales of King Arthur and his knights, Ovid's poetry, plays by Sophocles, Aristotle and Aeschylus, Apuleius, names she loved repeating in her mind because the mere sound of them conjured the drama, pageantry, passion, transformations and suffering of their heroes and heroines. One of her favorite writers was Geoffrey Chaucer-- his poems of pilgrims exchanging stories as they traveled to a shrine in Canterbury were both heart aching and often sidesplittingly funny.
Admittedly, one of the reasons she loved Chaucer was because she could read him for herself. It was the same reason she picked up Shakespeare over and over, and the works of Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle upon Tyne. They all wrote in English. Regarded as quite the eccentric, the duchess was a woman of learning who, like Rosamund, was self-taught. Her autobiography, A True Relation of my Birth, Breeding and Life, a gift from Mr. Henderson, gave Rosamund a model to emulate. Here was a woman who dared to consider not only philosophy, science, astronomy and romance, but to write about her reflections and discoveries in insightful ways. Defying her critics, she determined that women were men's intellectual equal, possessed of as quick a wit and as many subtleties if only given the means to express themselves-- in other words, access to education.”
― Karen Brooks, The Chocolate Maker's Wife

“Natural love is "the desire each creature has for its own perfection," and it is by definition without error. Elective love involves free will; it can err by having a wrong object ("per malo obietto") or by being pursued with too much or too little vigor, but it avoids being the cause of sinful pleasure ("mal diletto") when it is directed to the Primal Good (God) or to secondary worldly goods in moderation ("ne' secondi sé stesso misura" [17.98]). Thus, Vergil concludes, love is the cause of every virtue or vice in man (17.103-5).”
― R. Allen Shoaf, Chaucer's Troilus & Criseyde: Subgit to Alle Poesye: Essays in Criticism