For tyme ylost may nought recovered be.
Geoffrey ChaucerRead
Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.
Interpretation
Truth is the most valuable principle that a person can uphold.
Geoffrey Chaucer emphasizes the paramount importance of truth in human existence. By declaring it as the 'highest thing,' he suggests that living truthfully is essential for moral integrity and personal fulfillment, highlighting truth as a foundational value that should guide one's life and actions.
In practice
A speaker at a philosophy conference discussing the importance of honesty in ethical practices.
For tyme ylost may nought recovered be.
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.
If gold rusts, what then can iron do?
Thus with hir fader for a certeyn space_x000D_ _x000D_ Dwelleth this flour of wyfly pacience,_x000D_ _x000D_ That neither by hir wordes ne hir face_x000D_ _x000D_ Biforn the folk, ne eek in her absence,_x000D_ _x000D_ Ne shewed she that hir was doon offence.
Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, That may bothe werke wel and hastily.
For oute of olde feldys, as men sey,_x000D_ _x000D_ Comyth al this newe corn from yer to yere;_x000D_ _x000D_ And out of olde bokis, in good fey,_x000D_ _x000D_ Comyth al this newe science that men lere.
Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.
A dream has power to poison sleep.
When I consider the multitude of associated forces which are diffused through nature - when I think of that calm balancing of their energies which enables those most powerful in themselves, most destructive to the world's creatures and economy, to dwell associated together and be made subservient to the wants of creation, I rise from the contemplation more than ever impressed with the wisdom, the beneficence, and grandeur, beyond our language to express, of the Great Disposer of us all.
We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.
Not hear it? --yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long --long --long --many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it --yet I dared not --oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! --I dared not --I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb!
You have no doubt guessed long since that the conquest of time and the escape from reality, or however else it may be that you choose to describe your longing, means simply the wish to be relieved of your so-called personality. That is the prison where you lie.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.