James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Chaucer
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, / He taught, but first he folwed it himselve.
For of fortunes sharpe adversite, / The worst kind of infortune is this, / A man that hath been in prosperite, / And it remember when it passéd is.
For to see and eek for to be seye.
Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.
He is gentil that doth gentil dedes.
I have, God wot, a largë field to ear; / And weakë be the oxen in my plough.
Murder will out.
Savor (desire) no more than thee behoven shall, / Rede well thyself that other folks can rede, / And truth thee shalt deliver—’tis no drede.
Suffice unto thy good, though it be small, / For hoard hath hate, and climbing tickleness; (uncertainty) / Praise hath envie, and weal is blent o’er all.
That thee is sent receive in buxomness: / The wrestling of this world asketh a fall. / Here is no home, here is but wilderness. / Forth, pilgrim, forth—on, best out of thy stall. / Look up on high, and thank the God of all.
The greatest clerkes (scholars) ben not the wisest men.
The substance of a man is full good when sin is not in a man’s conscience.
Trusse up thy packe, and trudge from me, to every little boy, / And tell them thus from me, their time most happy is, / If to theyr time they reason had, to know the truth of this.
Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.