PIETRO ARETINO

Flattery and deceit are the darlings of great men, and so with these men spread the butter on thick, if you want to get something out of them, otherwise you'll come home to me with a full belly and an empty purse.

What evil is there in seeing a man possess a woman? Why, the beasts would be more free than we!

If you want to annoy your neighbors, tell the truth about them.

I am a free man. I do not need to copy Petrarca or Boccaccio. My own genius is enough. Let others worry themselves about style, and so cease to be themselves. Without a master, without a model, without a guide, I go to work and earn my living, my well-being and my fame.

I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship.

A high heart ought to bear calamities and not flee them, since in bearing them appears the grandeur of the mind and in fleeing them the cowardice of the heart.

With a goose-quill and a few sheets of paper, I mock myself of the universe. They say I am the son of a courtesan; it may be so, but I have the heart of a King. I live free, I enjoy myself, I can call myself happy.

Why should the eyes be denied what delights them most?

Perugia is my true fatherland because there I grew to manhood.

I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.

I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.

Flee laziness which while it produces an immediate delight, ends in the sorrow of repentance. And know that nature without exercise is a seed shut up in the pod, and art without practice is nothing.

Nature without exercise is a seed shut up in a pod, and art without practice is nothing.

Age has a good mind and sorry shanks.

Desire is poison at lunch and wormwood at dinner; your bed is a stone, friendship is hateful and your fancy is always fixed on one thing.

Why should I be ashamed to describe what nature was not ashamed to create?

A man who permits his honor to be taken, permits his life to be taken.

We are the buffoons of our children.

Telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.

The best thing for a man to do is to be born and, being born, to die at once.

Life is a toy made of glass; it appears to be of inestimable price, but in reality it is very cheap.

They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.

What evil is there in seeing a man possess a woman? Why, the beasts would be more free than we! It seems to me that that which is given us by nature for our own preservation ought to be worn round the neck as a pendant and in the hat for a medal.

He who has not been at a tavern knows not what a paradise it is. O holy tavern! O miraculous tavern! - holy, because no carking cares are there, nor weariness, nor pain; and miraculous, because of the spits, which themselves turn round and round!