A faithful servant is more diligent in keeping your goods safe than is your own wife, because she will claim a half part of your worth all her life.
Till we be roten, kan we not be rypen?
La avaricia es la causa de todos los vicios.
Los timadores, al final, acaban siendo ellos mismos timados.
Lost money is not lost beyond recall, But loss of time brings on the loss of all.
Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.
The Wife of Bath A good Wife was there from Bath. She was somewhat deaf, and that was a pity. Of cloth-making had she such a skill that she surpassed even the weavers of Ypres and of Ghent. In all the Parish there was no Wife who dared precede her to the offering at Mass; and, if perchance one did, it was certain so wrathful was she that she forgot all thoughts of charity.
Lo, what a powerful thing is emotion! Men may die of imagination, so profoundly can a notion afflict the mind.
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’.
Truly, it is said, age has great advantage over youth. In age is both wisdom and experience. Youth may outrun the old, but not outwit.
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, 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.
Amor vincit omnia: Love conquers all.
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.
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.
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!
For, as Seneca said, ‘Loss of chattels may recovered be, but time, once lost, we shall never see.’ It will not come again, without doubt, no more than will Molly’s maidenhead, when she has lost it because of her wantonness. Let us not grow mouldy thus in idleness.
You fare by love as owls do by light.
Here is ended the Prioress’s Tale.
For Solomon says that, ‘The doctrine and the wit of a man is to be understood by his patience.