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A lawyer must be told things frankly; then it's up to us to muddle them up.

— Alessandro Manzoni The Betrothed (1827)

All'avvocato bisogna raccontar le cose chiare: a noi tocca poi a imbrogliarle.

Original text (Italian)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Ch. 3, p. 35

More quotes by Alessandro Manzoni

What comes after is not always progress.

It is one of the advantages of this world that people can hate and be hated without knowing each other.

The Betrothed (1827)

But what is history, Don Ferrante would often say, without politics? A guide who walks on and on with no one following to learn the road, so that his every step is wasted; just as politics without history is like a man who walks along without a guide.

The Betrothed (1827)

The general practice is for the secret to be confided only to an equally trustworthy friend, the same conditions being imposed on him. And so from trustworthy friend to trustworthy friend the secret goes moving on round that immense chain, until finally it reaches the ears of just the very person or persons whom the first talker had expressly intended it never should reach.

The Betrothed (1827)

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Attribution

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