Boccaccio 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.

Nothing is so indecent that it cannot be said to another person if the proper words are used to convey it.

Kissed mouth don’t lose its fortune, on the contrary it renews itself just as the moon does.

Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify.

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 [...]

No-thing less splendid than a golden sepulchre would have suited so noble a heart.

Let this grisly beginning be none other to you than is to wayfarers a rugged and steep mountain.

La giovane, che non era di ferro né di diamante, assai agevolmente si piegò ai piaceri dello abate.

Senseless creatures, you don't see how much evil is concealed under a little good appearance.

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.

Of women he was as fond as dogs of the stick; but in the contrary he delighted more than any filthy fellow alive.

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

here be said save that even in poor cottages there rain down divine spirits from heaven, like as in princely palaces there be those who were worthier to tend swine than to have lordship over men?

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.

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.

since the beginning of the world men have been and will be, until the end thereof, bandied about by various shifts of fortune,

richer, by far in coin than in wit,

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.

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.

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)

…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.

El viajero que trepa penosamente hasta la cima de un escarpado monte, goza muchísimo más cuando al término de su viaje descubre ante su vista una vasta y deliciosa llanura.

No one will ever know it and a sin that's hidden is half forgiven.

let grease his palm with a good dose of St. John Goldenmouth's ointment[56

[...] în pocale de aur bei venin la mesele regești

He was a terrible blasphemer of God and the saints, and that for every trifle, being the most choleric man alive.

of the celestial bodies, or sent upon us mortals by God

En una bandada de blancas palomas, un cuervo negro añade más belleza incluso que el candor de un cisne

He thought that Abraham would never become a Christian once he had seen the Papal Court; but, since it was useless, he gave up trying to dissuade him.

Tedaldo adunque, tornato ricchissimo, perseverò nel suo amare, e, senza piú turbarsi la donna, discretamente operando, lungamente goderon del loro amore. Dio faccia noigoder del nostro.

There shall we heare the pretty birds sweetly singing, see the hilles and plaines verdantly flouring; the Corne waving in the field like the billowes of the Sea, infinite store of goodly trees,

he took her to wife, she would still study to please him, nor take umbrage at aught that he should do or say, and if she would be obedient, and many other like things, to all of which she answered ay;

…un monaco, il quale in ogni cosa era santissimo fuor che nell'opera delle femine; e questo sapeva sí cautamente fare che quasi niuno, non che il sapesse, ma né suspicava, per che santissimo e giusto era tenuto in ogni cosa.

My story, gracious ladies, will not be of folk of so high a rank as those of whom Elisa has told us, but perchance ‘twill not be less touching. ’Tis brought to my mind by the recent mention of Messina, where the matter befell.

I purpose to relate to you of a marquess, not an act of magnificence, but a monstrous folly, which, albeit good ensued to him thereof in the end, I counsel not any to imitate, for it was a thousand pities that weal betided him thereof.

Thus, it is quite clear that things which the natural course of events, with its small, infrequent blows, could never teach the wise to bear with patience, the immensity of this calamity made even simple people regard with indifference.

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.

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.

My friends, you constrain me unto that which I was altogether resolved never to do, considering how hard a thing it is to find a wife whose fashions sort well within one’s own humour and how great an abundance there is of the contrary sort and how dour a life is his who happeneth upon a woman not well suited unto him.

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.

but I beseech you, as most I may, that you inflict not on her those pangs which you inflicted whilere on her who was sometime yours; for methinketh she might scarce avail to endure them, both because she is younger and because she hath been delicately reared, whereas the other had been in continual fatigues from a little child.

it was one which the Old Man of the Mountain* was in the habit of using when he wished to send people to his paradise in their sleep, or when he wished to bring them back. This prince said also that, by varying the amount administered, it would work, without causing any harm, to send a man to sleep for a longer or shorter period and, while its effect lasted, no one would think him to be alive. The

Charming ladies, as I doubt not you know, the understanding of mortals consisteth not only in having in memory things past and taking cognizance of things present; but in knowing, by means of the one and the other of these, to forecast things future is reputed by men of mark to consist the greatest wisdom. To-morrow, as you know, it will be fifteen days since we departed Florence, to take some diversion for the preservation of our health and of our lives, eschewing the woes and dolours and miseries which, since this pestilential season began, are continually to be seen about our city. This, to my judgment, we have well and honourably done; for that, an I have known to see aright, albeit merry stories and belike incentive to concupiscence have been told here and we have continually eaten and drunken well and danced and sung and made music, all things apt to incite weak minds to things less seemly, I have noted no act, no word, in fine nothing blameworthy, either on your part or on that of us men; nay, meseemeth I have seen and felt here a continual decency, an unbroken concord and a constant fraternal familiarity; the which, at once for your honour and service and for mine own, is, certes, most pleasing to me. Lest, however, for overlong usance aught should grow thereof that might issue in tediousness, and that none may avail to cavil at our overlong tarriance,

<...> 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)

Even in these circumstances, however, there were no tears or candles or mourners to honour the dead; in fact, no more respect was accorded to dead people than would nowadays be shown towards dead goats. For it was quite apparent that the one thing which, in normal times, no wise man had ever learned to accept with patient resignation (even though it struck so seldom and unobtrusively), had now been brought home to the feeble-minded as well, but the scale of the calamity caused them to regard it with indifference.

But things are shifting rapidly. Women’s achievements are multiplying. We don’t always have to prove that we’re acquiescent or complicit to enjoy the crumbs dispensed by the system of male power. The power that we require must be so solid and active that we can do without the sanction of men altogether. The seven female narrators of the “Decameron” should never again need to rely on the great Giovanni Boccaccio to express themselves. Along with their innumerable female readers (even Boccaccio back then knew that men had other things to do and read little), they know how to describe the world in unexpected ways. The female story, told with increasing skill, increasingly widespread and unapologetic, is what must now assume power.

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...

If a third of the stories in the Decameron mock religion, two-thirds celebrate sex.

In Florence the sublime and terrible go hand in hand: Savonarola’s Bonfires of the Vanities and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and Niccolò Macchiavelli’s The Prince, Dante’s Inferno and Boccaccio’s Decameron.

Giovanni Boccaccio wrote in his Decameron that people, afraid of contamination by the rotting corpses, would drag the dead outside their houses and leave them in front of their doors to be picked up, like so much garbage.

Giovanni Boccaccio, autore del Decameron, gli dedica un’intera novella, in cui non solo lo celebra come il più bravo pittore vivente, ma sottolinea la sua alacrità nelle risposte e la vivace intelligenza.