Baldassare Castiglione Quotes

1478–1529

Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Novilara (December 6, 1478 – February 2, 1529) was an Italian courtier, diplomat and author, best-known for his study of the ideal courtly life, Il Libro del Cortegiano.

Random Baldassare Castiglione quote

3 quotes

Practise in everything a certain nonchalance that shall conceal design and show that what is done and said is done without effort and almost without thought.

Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528)

Take care lest perchance you fall into the mistake of thinking to gain more by being merciful than by being just; for to pardon him too easily that has transgressed is to wrong him that transgresses not.

Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528)

Who does not know that without women we can feel no content or satisfaction throughout this life of ours, which but for them would be rude and devoid of all sweetness and more savage than that of wild beasts? Who does not know that women alone banish from our hearts all vile and base thoughts, vexations, miseries, and those turbid melancholies that so often are their fellows?

Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Baldassare Castiglione (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.