Giovanni Boccaccio quotes

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, and humanist, widely celebrated as one of the founders of Renaissance literature. His most famous work, "The Decameron," is a collection of novellas that had a profound influence on European storytelling. He enriched the Italian language and inspired countless authors with his vivid characters and innovative narrative style. Here are 30 of his quotes:

Do as we say, not as we do. (Giovanni Boccaccio)
People tend to believe the bad rather than the good. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Human it is to have compassion on the unhappy. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
A kissed mouth doesn't lose its freshness, for like the moon it always renews itself. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
To have compassion for those who suffer is a human quality which everyone should possess, especially those who have required comfort themselves in the past and have managed to find it in others. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
You must read, you must persevere, you must sit up nights, you must inquire, and exert the utmost power of your mind. If one way does not lead to the desired meaning, take another; if obstacles arise, then still another; until, if your strength holds out, you will find that clear which at first looked dark. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Heaven would indeed be heaven if lovers were there permitted as much enjoyment as they had experienced on earth. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
They boosted themselves with such nauseating self-praise as to make the stones jump out of the walls and flee. (Giovanni Boccaccio)
A just king must be the first to observe those laws that he has himself prescribed. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
A sweet little mouth with lips like rubies. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Charming ladies, the beauty of a flock of white doves is better enhanced by a black crow than by a pure white swan. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
They banish us to the kitchen, there to tell stories to the cat. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
The nature of wit is such that its bite must be like that of a sheep rather than a dog, for if it were to bite the listener like a dog, it would no longer be wit but abuse. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Who means ill, dreams ill. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
The deceived has the better of the deceiver. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
An oak is not felled by a single blow of the axe. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
A sin that's hidden is half forgiven. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
People are more inclined to believe in bad intentions than in good ones. (Giovanni Boccaccio)
He who is wicked and held to be good, can cheat because no one imagines he would. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Shortly afterwards the moon rose with a very clear sky, and [he] kept watch. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
The power of the pen is far greater than those people suppose who have not proved it by experience. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio
Every person born into this world has a natural right to sustain, preserve, and defend his own life to the best of his ability. View quote
Giovanni Boccaccio