Baldassare Castiglione quotes

Baldassare Castiglione was an Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer, best known for his book "The Book of the Courtier." This influential work defined the ideals of the perfect Renaissance gentleman. He became a model of sophistication in European high society. Here are 4 of his quotes:

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. (Baldassare Castiglione)
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. View quote
Baldassare Castiglione
Then the soul, freed from vice, purged by studies of true philosophy, versed in spiritual life, and practised in matters of the intellect, devoted to the contemplation of her own substance, as if awakened from deepest sleep, opens those eyes which all possess but few use, and sees in herself a ray of that light which is the true image of the angelic beauty communicated to her, and of which she then communicates a faint shadow to the body. View quote
Baldassare Castiglione
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? View quote
Baldassare Castiglione