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Quotes from Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto — John Hoole

1727–1803 England

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20 quotes

But such their power who rule with tyrant sway,
Whom most they loath the people most obey.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

And Neptune's white herds low above the wave.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

What has that wretched damsel left to boast,
What good on earth, whose virtuous praise is lost?

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Of all the sex this certain truth is known,
No woman yet was ever content with one.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

To others never do
That which yourselves would wish undone to you.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Behold the state of man's unstable mind,
Still prone to change with every changing wind!
All our resolves are weak, but weakest prove
Where sprung from sense of disappointed love.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

In blaming others, fools their folly show,
And most attempt to speak when least they know.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Reflect, ye gentle dames, that much they know,
Who gain experience from another's woe.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

These friendly words awhile consoled the fair;
For grief imparted oft alleviates care.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

For oft the grace
Of costly vest improves a beauteous face.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Never let us utter what we never can know,
And chiefly when it works another's woe.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Love what we see can from our sight remove,
And things invisible are seen by Love.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Ah! why so rare does cruel Love inspire
Two tender bosoms with a mutual fire?
Say, whence, perfidious, dost thou pleasure find
To sow dissension in the human mind?

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

When Fame, O monarch! good or evil tells,
Evil or good beyond the truth she swells.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

What more our folly shows,
Than while we others seek, ourselves to lose?

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Not beauty, wealth, or lineage e'er could raise
A woman's name (he said) to height of praise,
If not in action chaste.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

When highest placed on giddy Fortune's wheel,
Unhappy man must soon expect to feel
A sad reverse, and in the changing round
With rapid whirl as sudden touch the ground.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

So from a water clear, the trembling light
Of Phoebus, or the silver queen of night,
Along the spacious rooms with splendour plays,
Now high, now low, and shifts a thousand ways.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

The youth, who pants to gain the amorous prize,
Forgets that Heaven with all-discerning eyes
Surveys the secret heart; and when desire
Has, in possession, quenched its short-lived fire,
The devious winds aside each promise bear,
And scatter all his solemn vows in air!

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

The spotless maid is like the blooming rose
Which on its native stem unsullied grows;
Where fencing walls the garden-space surround,
Nor swains, nor browsing cattle tread the ground.
But if some hand the tender stalk invades,
Lost is its beauty, and its colour fades:
No more the care of heaven, or garden's boast,
And all its praise with youths and maidens lost.

Orlando Furioso of Ludovico Ariosto (1773)

Attribution

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