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Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify.

— Giovanni Boccaccio The Decameron (1350)

Le cose mal fatte e di gran tempo passate son più agevoli a riprendere che ad emendare.

Original text (Italian)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Things ill done in times long past are far more easily censured than amended. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

More quotes by Giovanni Boccaccio

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)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Giovanni Boccaccio (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.