Italian Poet Quotes

Wise men and fools alike, in varying style,
Rush into print, and still, midst books galore,
The world grows ever older and more vile.

Giancarlo Passeroni

The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy, And its best flavour temperance gives to joy.

Not for no cold did freeze,
Nor any cloud beguile
Th'eternal flowering spring

The proud daughter of that monarch to whom when it grows dark [elsewhere] the sun never sets.

Giovanni Battista Guarini

Yet will the loved one's gentle smile suffice
To ope the door of Paradise,
And turn to joy our dark and cruel lot.

Francesco Maria Molza

But that he wrought so high the specious tale,
As manifested plainly 'twas a lie.

Ludovico Ariosto

There are fools who seek to understand the secrets of nature.

Whoever he was who first depicted Amor as a boy, don't you think it was a wonderful touch? He was the first to see that lovers live without sense.

Once thou art wed, no longer canst thou be
Lord of thyself.

True 'tis, when unexpectedly we find
The beautiful, it charms the healthy mind.

Francesco Bracciolini

Study always to have Joy, for it befits not the servant of God to show before his brother or another sadness or a troubled face.

Francis of Assisi

We ought to esteem him alone an agreeable and good-natured man, who, in his daily intercourse with others, behaves in such a manner as friends usually behave to each other. For as a person of that rustic character appears, wherever he comes, like a mere stranger: so, on the contrary, a polite man, wherever he goes, seems as easy as if he were amongst his intimate friends and acquaintance.

Giovanni della Casa

That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.

Vittorio Alfieri