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Practise in everything a certain nonchalance that shall conceal design and show that what is done and said is done without effort and almost without thought.

— Baldassare Castiglione Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528)

Usar in ogni cosa una certa sprezzatura, che nasconda l'arte e dimostri ciò che si fa e dice venir fatto senza fatica e quasi senza pensarvi.

Original text (Italian)

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More quotes by Baldassare Castiglione

Take care lest perchance you fall into the mistake of thinking to gain more by being merciful than by being just; for to pardon him too easily that has transgressed is to wrong him that transgresses not.

Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528)

Who does not know that without women we can feel no content or satisfaction throughout this life of ours, which but for them would be rude and devoid of all sweetness and more savage than that of wild beasts? Who does not know that women alone banish from our hearts all vile and base thoughts, vexations, miseries, and those turbid melancholies that so often are their fellows?

Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528)

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