Great Throughts Treasury

"In jalousie I rede eek thou hym bynde and thou shalt make him couche as doeth a quaille."

"It is ful fair a man to bere him evene,/For alday meeteth men at unset stevene."

"It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake."

"Lat take a cat, and fostre him wel with milk, And tendre flesh, and make his couche of silk, And let him seen a mous go by the wal; Anon he weyveth milk, and flesh, and al, And every deyntee that is in that hous, Swich appetyt hath he to ete a mous."

"Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Expierience treacherous. Judgement difficult."

"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."

"Love is a thyng as any spirit free. Wommen, of kynde, desiren libertee, and nat to been constreyned as a thral; and so doon men, if I sooth seyen shal."

"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."

"Love wol nat been constreyned by maistrye. When maistrie comth, the God of Love anon beteth his wynges, and farewel, he is gon!"

"Make a virtue of necessity."

"Many a smale maketh a grate."

"Men sholde wedden after hir estat, for youthe and elde is often at debat."

"Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie."

"Mincing she was, as is a wanton colt, sweet as a flower and upright as a bolt."

"Mordre wol out, that se we day by day."

"Murder will out, this my conclusion."

"Nature, the vicar of the Almightie Lord."

"Ne nevere mo ne lakked hire pite; tendre-herted, slydynge of corage; but trewely, I kan nat telle hire age."

"No empty handed man can lure a bird."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Now, Sire, quod she, for aught that may bityde, I moste haue of the peres that I see, or I moote dye, so soore longeth me to eten of the smalle peres grene."

"Nowher so besy a man as he ther n' as, and yet he semed besier than he was."

"O little booke, thou art so unconning, how darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?"

"O yonge fresshe folkes, he or she, in which that love up-groweth with your age, repeyreth hoom fro worldly vanitee, and of your herte up-casteth the visage to thilke God that after his image yow made, and thynketh al nis but a faire this world, that passeth sone as floures faire."

"Of alle the floures in the mede, Than love I most these floures whyte and rede, Swiche as men callen daysies in our toun. . . . . Til that myn herte dye. . . . . That wel by reson men hit calle may The 'dayesye' or elles the 'ye of day,' The emperice and flour of floures alle. I pray to god that faire mot she falle, And alle that loven floures, for hir sake!"

"Of fortune's sharp adversity, the worst kind of misfortune is this, that a man hath been in prosperity and it remembers when it passed is."

"Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese."

"Of studie took he most cure and most hede. Noght o word spak he more than was nede, and that was seyd in forme and reverence, and short and quik, and ful of hy sentence. Souninge in moral vertu was his speche, and gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."

"One flesh they are; and one flesh, so I'd guess, has but one heart, come grief or happiness."

"Oon ere it herde, at tothir out it wente [One ear heard it, at the other out it went]"

"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."

"Patience is a conquering virtue."

"Purity in body and heart"

"Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake."

"Roses were sette of sweete savour, with many roses that thei here."

"She wolde wepe, if that she sawe a mous Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde. Of smale houndes had she, that she fedde With rosted flesh, or milk and waster-breed. But sore weep she if oon of hem were deed."

"So was hire joly whistle wel ywette."

"Somwhat he lipsed, for his wantownesse To make hls English swete up-on his tonge."

"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."

"Thanne is it wysdom, as thynketh me, to maken vertu of necessite, and take it weel, that we may not eschu, and namely that that to us alle is due."

"That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears."

"That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis."

"That lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."

"That men by reason will it calle may the daisie or elles the eye of day the emperice, and floure of floures alle."

"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."

"The bisy larke, messager of day."

"The busy lark, the messenger of day."

"The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen, that was the king Priamus sone of Troye, in lovinge, how his aventures fellen fro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye, my purpos is, er that I parte fro ye. Thesiphone, thou help me for tendyte it is not good a sleping hound to wake."

"The false lapwynge, full of trecherye."

"The firste vertu, sone, if thou wolt leere, is to restreyne and kepe wel thy tonge; thus lerne childen whan that they been yonge."