The Decameron Quotes

“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. ”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Nothing is so indecent that it cannot be said to another person if the proper words are used to convey it.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Kissed mouth don’t lose its fortune, on the contrary it renews itself just as the moon does.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“it is obvious that all vices have a grievous effect on those who indulge them and often on others too. But I believe that the one which can transport us with the most unbridled haste into danger is anger. This is nothing other than a sudden thoughtless impulse, provoked by some perceived offence, which banishes reason and clouds the eyes of the mind, rousing the soul to blazing fury.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron

“The scholar, as wise as he was full of wrath, knowing that threats only serve as weapons to the person so threatened, kept all his resentment within his own breast [...]”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“And the plague gathered strength as it was transmitted from the sick to the healthy through normal intercourse, just as fire catches on to any dry or greasy object placed too close to it. Nor did it stop there: not only did the healthy incur the disease and with it the prevailing mortality by talking to or keeping company with the sick--they had only to touch the clothing or anything else that had come into contact with or been used by the sick and the plague evidently was passed to the one who handled those things.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Let this grisly beginning be none other to you than is to wayfarers a rugged and steep mountain.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“No-thing less splendid than a golden sepulchre would have suited so noble a heart.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Senseless creatures, you don't see how much evil is concealed under a little good appearance.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“La giovane, che non era di ferro né di diamante, assai agevolmente si piegò ai piaceri dello abate.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Whenever they are reproached for such actions and for the many other disgraceful things they do, they think they can unload the heaviest charges by replying, ‘Do as we say and not as we do’—as if constancy and steadfast behavior came more easily to the sheep than to their shepherds.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Umana cosa è l'aver compassione agli afflitti; e come che a ciascuna persona stea bene, a coloro è massimamente richiesto li quali già hanno di conforto avuto mestiere, e hannol trovato in alcuni: fra' quali, se alcuno mai n'ebbe bisogno, o gli fu caro, o già ne ricevette piacere, io son uno di quegli.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“since the beginning of the world men have been and will be, until the end thereof, bandied about by various shifts of fortune,”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, THE DECAMERON:

“Of women he was as fond as dogs of the stick; but in the contrary he delighted more than any filthy fellow alive.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, THE DECAMERON:

“They brought it to a common saying there that the most acceptable service one could render to God was to put the devil in Hell”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Mejor estaría con diablos: de siete veces seis no saben lo que ellas mismas quieren.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, El Decamerón

“So long she held on in this mourning manner, that, what by the
continuall watering of the Basile, and putrifaction of the head, so
buried in the pot of earth; it grew very flourishing, and most
odorifferous to such as scented it, that as no other Basile could
possibly yeeld so sweete a savour.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“…dumheden hos disse mænd og den endnu større dumhed hos dem, der tror, at de er stærkere end naturen, og med eventyrlige argumenter bilder sig selv ind, at de formår, hvad de ikke formår, og ønsker at få andre til at handle ligesom dem selv, selvom det strider imod deres natur.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“richer, by far in coin than in wit,”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, THE DECAMERON:

“No one will ever know it and a sin that's hidden is half forgiven.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, THE DECAMERON:

“لقد أحسنت صنعا بالمجيء.فما الذي يمكن لرجل أن يفعله بين النساء؟.. العيش مع الشيطان أفضل منهن،لأنهن ست مرات من كل سبع لا يعرفن ما الذي يردنه.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“it was his custom to live for three days of the week on bread and water, and he had drunk this water with as much pleasure and as greedily (particularly when he was tired after praying or going on pilgrimage)”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron

“Alack!’ rejoined the other, ‘what is this thou sayest? Knowest thou not that we have promised our virginity to God?’ ‘Oh, as for that,’ answered the first, ‘how many things are promised Him all day long, whereof not one is fulfilled unto Him! An we have promised it Him, let Him find Himself another or others to perform it to Him.’ ‘Or if,’ went on her fellow, ‘we should prove with child, how would it go then?’ Quoth the other, ‘Thou beginnest to take thought unto ill ere it cometh; when that betideth, then will we look to it; there will be a thousand ways for us of doing so that it shall never be known, provided we ourselves tell it not.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron

“Fiammetta, whose wavy tresses fell in a flood of gold over her white and delicate shoulders”
― Boccaccio Giovanni, Dekameron

“Ir taisnība (lai arī kāds tam būtu iemesls, vai nu mūsu tikumu izviršana, vai sevišķa nelabvēlība, ar kādu uz mūsu gadsimtu raugās debesis), ka šodien ir palicis pavisam maz vai nav nemaz tādu sieviešu, kas īstajā brīdī prastu kaut ko pateikt vai spētu saprast, kā nākas, ja viņām ko saka, un tas ir liels kauns mums visām.”
― Bokkachcho D., Dekameron

“Such then were the consequences of her flouts to this foolish young woman, who deemed that she might trifle with a scholar with the like impunity as with others, not duly understanding that they—I say not all, but the more part—know where the Devil keeps his tail.84 Wherefore, my ladies, have a care how you flout men, and more especially scholars.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“tis no glory to the eagle to have vanquished a dove;”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“who, albeit he was none too quick at his book, had no lack of precious and blessed solecisms to edify his flock withal of a Sunday under the elm. And when the men were out of doors, he would visit their wives as never a priest had done before him, bringing them feast-day gowns and holy water, and now and again a bit of candle, and giving them his blessing.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

“Thou knowest, Lusca, that 'tis not the first stroke that fells the oak;”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron