33 quotes
In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy.
The Decameron (1350)
A sweet little mouth with lips like rubies.
The Decameron (1350)
Nobility cannot descend to us as an inheritance, except as do virtue, knowledge, holiness, and such like things.
The ass gets back from the wall as good as he gives.
They boosted themselves with such nauseating self-praise as to make the stones jump out of the walls and flee.
Il Corbaccio (1355)
Every person born into this world has a natural right to sustain, preserve, and defend his own life to the best of his ability.
The Decameron (1350)
The power of the pen is far greater than those people suppose who have not proved it by experience.
The Decameron (1350)
It frequently happens that people grow tired of always eating the same food, and desire a change of diet.
The Decameron (1350)
People are more inclined to believe in bad intentions than in good ones.
The Decameron (1350)
I have always been given to understand…that whereas a single cock is quite sufficient for ten hens, ten men are hard put to satisfy one woman.
The Decameron (1350)
A kissed mouth doesn't lose its freshness, for like the moon it always renews itself.
The Decameron (1350)
He who is wicked and held to be good, can cheat because no one imagines he would.
The Decameron (1350)
Dying more like animals than human beings.
The Decameron (1350)
A sin that's hidden is half forgiven.
The Decameron (1350)
Charming ladies, the beauty of a flock of white doves is better enhanced by a black crow than by a pure white swan.
The Decameron (1350)
A just king must be the first to observe those laws that he has himself prescribed.
The Decameron (1350)
Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify.
The Decameron (1350)
Shortly afterwards the moon rose with a very clear sky, and [he] kept watch.
The Decameron (1350)
They banish us to the kitchen, there to tell stories to the cat.
The Decameron (1350)
An oak is not felled by a single blow of the axe.
The Decameron (1350)