. . . 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. . . .

The handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us Most often are the very ones that end us.

My house is small, but you are learned men And by your arguments can make a place Twenty foot broad as infinite as space.

Men sholde nat knowe of Goddes pryvetee Ye, blessed be alwey, a lewed man That noght but oonly his believe kan! So ferde another clerk with astromye, He walked in the feelds, for to prye Upon the sterres, what ther sholde bifalle, Til he was in a marle-pit yfalle.

Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, That may bothe werke wel and hastily.

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.

To keep demands as much skill as to win.