Quotes from The Decameron

Giovanni Boccaccio ·  909 pages

Rating: (27.8K votes)


“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, quote from The Decameron


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


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


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


“Mejor estaría con diablos: de siete veces seis no saben lo que ellas mismas quieren.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron


“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.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron


“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, quote from The 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, quote from The Decameron


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


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


“<...> в Берлинцоне, в стране басков, в области, называемой Живи-лакомо, где виноградные лозы подвязывают сосисками, гусь идет за копейку, да еще с гусенком впридачу; есть там гора вся из тертого пармезана, на которой живут люди и ничем другим не занимаются, как только готовят макароны и клецки, варят их в отваре из каплунов и бросают вниз; кто больше поймает, у того больше и бывает; а поблизости течет поток из Верначчьо, лучшего вина еще никто не пивал, и нет в нем ни капли воды.("Декамерон", Дж. Бокаччо)”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron


“Oni su se udruživali i, izdvojeni od ostalih, živeli povučenim i usamljenim životom, koga su uredili s najvećom pažnjom... Mučno je sećati se kako je građanin izbegavao građanina, kako se među susedima jedva ko nalazio da prema drugome pokaže saosećanje, i kako se razdvojeni srodnici nikad ne sretahu. Ucveljenost je tako duboko prodrla u ljudske duše da je u tom užasu brat napuštao brata, a žena muža, dok očevi i majke, kao da su stranci, nezbrinutom ostavljahu decu njihovoj sudbini... Na vrhuncu zlopaćenja i ispaštanja našeg grada, ranjivi autoritet ljudskog i božanskog zakona beše zloupotrebljavan i gotovo se sasvim raspao, jer oni koji su trebali da ga primenjuju i sami behu mrtvi ili bolesni. Stoga je svaki čovek bio slobodan da čini što je u sopstvenim očima nalazio da je pravo...”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron



“la gratitud, según lo creo, es entre las demás virtudes sumamente de alabar y su contraria de maldecir,”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron


“I have lost my pains, which meseemed I had right well bestowed, thinking to have converted this man; for that, an he go to the court of Rome and see the lewd and wicked life of the clergy, not only will he never become a Christian, but, were he already a Christian, he would infallibly turn Jew again.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron


About the author

Giovanni Boccaccio
Born place: Certaldo, Italy
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