“For hym was levere have at his beddes heedTwenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,Of Aristotle and his philosophie,Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie.”

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

“When that Aprille with his shoures sote.The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour,Of which vertue engendred is the flour.”

“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.”

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

“Be nat wrooth, my lord, though that I pleye. Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd seye!”

“By God, if women had written stories,As clerks had within here oratories,They would have written of men more wickednessThan all the mark of Adam may redress.”