Skip to content
quotesby

13 John Gower Quotes

John Gower's verses feel like a medieval mentor guiding you through writing, balance and love.

John Gower quotes

  1. For whan men wene best to have achieved, Ful ofte it is al newe to beginne: The werre hath no thing siker, thogh he winne.

    #1

  2. Bot for men sein, and soth it is, That who that al of wisdom writ It dulleth ofte a mannes wit To him that schal it aldai rede, For thilke cause, if that ye rede, I wolde go the middel weie And wryte a bok betwen the tweie, Somwhat of lust, somewhat of lore.

    #2

  3. But in proverbe I have herde say, That who that wel his werk beginneth, The rather a good end he winneth.

    #3

  4. For loves lawe is out of reule.

    #4

  5. It hath and schal ben everemor That love is maister wher he wile.

    #5

  6. He hath the sor which no man heleth, The which is cleped lack of herte.

    #6

  7. O fol of alle foles, Thou farst as he betwen tuo stoles That wolde sitte and goth to grounde.

    #7

  8. The beaute faye upon her face Non erthly thing it may desface.

    #8

  9. Nevere yit Was non, which half so loste his wit Of drinke, as thei of such thing do Which cleped is the jolif wo.

    #9

  10. What is a lond wher men ben none? What ben the men whiche are alone Withoute a kinges governance? What is a king in his ligance, Wher that ther is no lawe in londe? What is to take lawe on honde, Bot if the jugges weren trewe?

    #10

  11. So goth the world, now wo, now wel.

    #11

  12. O moral Gower!

    #12

  13. In the content of his work it is interesting to notice that he is profoundly English. His romanticism, and his choice of the theme of Time and Age - both these look back to the Anglo-Saxons and forward to the nineteenth century. Yet his form is French. The heart is insular and romantic, the head cool and continental: it is a good combination.

    #13