Original text (Italian)
Gather the rose of love, while yet thou mayest,
Loving, be loved; embracing, be embraced.
Under whose feet, subjected to his grace,
Sit nature, fortune, motion, time and place.
For in a world so mutable and blind
it's often constancy to change one's mind.
She fair, he full of bashfulness and truth,
Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought.
A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure — critics are ready-made.
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Torquato Tasso (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.