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Giovanni Boccaccio Quotes
1313–1375 Italy
Giovanni Boccaccio (16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was a Florentine poet and story-writer who helped to initiate the humanist movement. His most famous work is The Decameron, a collection of 100 novelle or tales.
Also known as: Boccaccio, Boccacio, Decameron, The Decameron
Random Giovanni Boccaccio quote
33 quotes
The deceived has the better of the deceiver.
The Decameron (1350)
His hair stood upright like porcupine quills.
I propose to tell you a very brief tale about a love which...ran a smooth course to its happy conclusion.
The Decameron (1350)
While superfluity engenders disgust, appetite is but whetted when fruit is forbidden.
The Decameron (1350)
As certain as thou art of death.
If of thy talons, Love, be quit I may,
The Decameron (1350)
And if his own joy knew no bounds, the girl was no less delighted on seeing him.
The Decameron (1350)
It is annoying and impossible to suffer proud women, because in general Nature has given men proud and high spirits, while it has made women humble in character and submissive, more apt for delicate things than for ruling.
De Mulieribus Claris (1362)
The nature of wit is such that its bite must be like that of a sheep rather than a dog, for if it were to bite the listener like a dog, it would no longer be wit but abuse.
The Decameron (1350)
Do as we say, not as we do.
The Decameron (1350)
Who means ill, dreams ill.
The Decameron (1350)
A young woman is fickle and is desirous of many lovers, and her beauty she esteemeth more than it is in her mirror, and abounding vainglory hath she in her youth, which is all the more pleasing and attractive the more she judgeth it in her own mind. She hath no feeling for virtue or reason, inconstant ever as leaf in the wind.
If we consider human behavior, we can well understand from this example that there are many Circes everywhere and many other men are changed into beasts by their lustfulness and their vices. And Ulysses, instructed by Mercury’s advice, obviously signifies the wise man who cannot be bound by the trickery of deceitful people and who by his example often loosens the bonds of those who are held.
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