Doctors & druggists wash each other’s hands.

And high above, depicted in a tower, sat Conquest, robed in majesty and power, under a sword that swung above his head, sharp-edged and hanging by a subtle thread.

We’re like two dogs in battle on their own; They fought all day but neither got the bone, There came a kite above them, nothing loth, And while they fought he took it from them both.

Lust is addicted to novelty.

Love conquers all.

Fortune sides with him who dares.

Go, little book; God send thee good passage, and specially let this be thy prayer, unto them all that thee will read or hear, where thou art wrong, after their help to call, thee to correct in any part, or all.

And next the darke night is the glad morrow, / And also joy is next the end of sorrow.

For lovers be the folk that be alive.

They demen gladly to the badder end.

That well by reason men it calls may The daisie, or els the eye of the day, The emprise, and floure of floures all.

But Christ’s lore and his apostles twelve, He taught and first he followed it himself.

The man who has no wife is no cuckold.

Time lost, as men may see, For nothing may recovered be.

I am right sorry for your heavinesse.

Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!

Your duty is, as ferre as I can gesse.

Thou shalt make castels thanne in Spayne And dreme of joye, all but in vayne.

One cannot be avenged for every wrong; according to the occasion, everyone who knows how, must use temperance.

For in their hearts doth Nature stir them so Then people long on pilgrimage to go And palmers to be seeking foreign strands To distant shrines renowned in sundry lands.

One shouldn’t be too inquisitive in life Either about God’s secrets or one’s wife.

Habit maketh no monk, ne wearing of gilt spurs maketh no knight.

Hyt is not al golde that glareth.

In the stars is written the death of every man.

For out of old fields, as men saith, Cometh all this new corn from year to year; And out of old books, in good faith, Cometh all this new science that men learn.

Such a cry was never made as made by all the hens in the yard when they saw Chanticleer captured.

Alas, that Chanticleer flew down from the rafters! Alas, that his wife took no heed of dreams! And all this trouble came on a Friday.

‘See’, said the widow as the fox slunk into the grove, ‘that is the result of trusting in flattery.’

O woman’s counsel is so often cold! A woman’s counsel brought us first to woe, Made Adam out of Paradise to go Where he had been so merry, so well at ease.

Then the Miller fell off his horse.

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

Yet do not miss the moral, my good men. For Saint Paul says that all that’s written well Is written down some useful truth to tell. Then take the wheat and let the chaff lie still.

It seems to me that poverty is an eyeglass through which one may see his true friends.

One flesh they are; and one flesh, so I’d guess, Has but one heart, come grief or happiness.

The cat would eat fish but would not get her feet wet.

I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose.

Certain, when I was born, so long ago, Death drew the tap of life and let it flow; And ever since the tap has done its task, And now there’s little but an empty cask.

One eare it heard, at the other out it went.

Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.

And Christ’s law and His Apostles twelve he taught, but first he followed it himself.

I know that my singing doesn’t make the moon rise, nor does it make the stars shine. But without my song, the night would seem empty and incomplete. There is more to daybreak than light, just as there is more to nighttime than darkness.

Who shall give a lover any law? Love is a greater law, by my troth, than any law written by mortal man.

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.

If were not foolish young, were foolish old.

Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.

Make a virtue of necessity.

For gold in phisike is a cordial; Therefore he loved gold in special.

Men may the wise atrenne, and naught atrede.

I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.

Until we’re rotten, we cannot be ripe.

You will not be master of my body & my property.

Well is it said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour.

He was as fresh as is the month of May.

There’s never a new fashion but it’s old.

And she was fair as is the rose in May.

I’ll die for stifled love, by all that’s true.

And once he had got really drunk on wine, then he would speak no language but Latin.

And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?

Abstinence is approved of God.

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.

He doth all things with sadness and with peevishness, slackness and excusation, with idleness and without good will.

Idleness is the gate of all harms.—An idle man is like a house that hath no walls; the devils may enter on every side.

A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall.

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

This world is but a thoroughfare full of woes.

For better than never is late.

For Saint Paul says that all that’s written well / Is written down some useful truth to tell.

As sooth is said, age hath great advantage, / In eld is both wisdom and experience.

A yokel mind loves stories from of old, Being the kind it can repeat and hold.

He is gentle that doeth gentle deeds.

What’s said is said and goes upon its way Like it or not, repent it as you may.

And so it is in politics, dear brother, Each for himself alone, there is no other.

It is nought good a sleeping hound to wake.

If a man really loves a woman, of course he wouldn’t marry her for the world if he were not quite sure that he was the best person she could possibly marry.

Mercy surpasses justice.

The fields have eyes, and the woods have ears.

Nature, the vicar of the Almighty Lord.

Many small make a great.

Look up on high, and thank the God of all.

The First Great Cause and Mover of all above When first He made that fairest chain of love, Great was the consequence and high the intent.

When in April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower.

For May will have no sluggardry at night, Season that pricks in every gentle heart, Awaking it from sleep, and bids it start.

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.

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

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

Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.

We know little of the things for which we pray.

Youth may outrun the old, but not outwit.

Then you compared a woman’s love to Hell, To barren land where water will not dwell, And you compared it to a quenchless fire, The more it burns the more is its desire To burn up everything that burnt can be. You say that just as worms destroy a tree A wife destroys her husband and contrives, As husbands know, the ruin of their lives.

Forbid Us Something and That Thing we Desire.

No empty handed man can lure a bird.

My mind to me a kingdom is; such present joys therein I find, that it excels all other bliss that earth affords.

First he wrought, and afterward he taught.

Nowhere so busy a man as he than he, and yet he seemed busier than he was.

Murder will out.

Never is a long time.

Filth and old age, I’m sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.

Women desire six things: They want their husbands to be brave, wise, rich, generous, obedient to wife, and lively in bed.

Murder will out, certain, it will not fail.

By nature, men love newfangledness.

The smiler with the knife under the cloak.

Purity in body and heart May please some–as for me, I make no boast. For, as you know, no master of a household Has all of his utensils made of gold; Some are wood, and yet they are of use.

You are the cause by which I die.

How potent is the fancy! People are so impressionable; they can die of imagination.

Behold how Fortune turns all suddenly / The hope and pride of even her enemy!

O destiny, you cannot be eschewed!

Full wise is he that can himself know.

The latter end of joy is woe.

Great peace is found in little busy-ness.

For there is one thing I can safely say: that those bound by love must obey each other if they are to keep company long. Love will not be constrained by mastery; when mastery comes, the God of love at once beats his wings, and farewell he is gone. Love is a thing as free as any spirit; women naturally desire liberty, and not to be constrained like slaves; and so do men, if I shall tell the truth.

Many a true word is spoken in jest.

The guilty think all talk is of themselves.

The life so brief, the art so long in the learning, the attempt so hard, the conquest so sharp, the fearful joy that ever slips away so quickly – by all this I mean love, which so sorely astounds my feeling with its wondrous operation, that when I think upon it I scarce know whether I wake or sleep.

The devil can only destroy those who are already on their way to damnation.

Death is the end of every worldly pain.

Strike while the iron is hot.

All good things must come to an end.

Except experience, mine, for what it’s worth, And that’s enough me.

He was a true, a perfect gentle-knight.

Your dreary rhyming isn’t worth a turd!

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.

If gold rusts, what then can iron do?

People can die of mere imagination.

The life so short, the crafts so long to learn.

Time and tide wait for no man.

Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.

The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.

What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.

Patience is a conquering virtue.