Ludovico Ariosto Quotes

What sign is there more plain
Than self-destruction, of a mind insane?

Che quella che da l'oro e da l'argento
Difende il cor di pudicizia armato,
Tra mille spade via più facilmente
Difenderallo, e in mezzo al fuoco ardente.

O bene o mal che la Fama ci apporti,
Signor, di sempre accrescere ha in usanza.

He who grows old in love, besides all pain
Which waits such passion, well deserves a chain.

Dunque Amor sempre rio non si ritrova:
Se spesso nuoce, anco talvolta giova.

A me non par che ben deciso,
Né che ben giusto alcun giudicio cada,
Ove prima non s'oda quanto nieghi
La parte o affermi, e sue ragioni alleghi.

A virgin is like a rose: while she remains on the thorn whence she sprang, alone and safe in a lovely garden, no flock, no shepherd approaches. The gentle breeze and the dewy dawn, water, and earth pay her homage; amorous youths and loving maidens like to deck their brows with her, and their breasts. / But no sooner is she plucked from her mother-stalk, severed from her green stem, than she loses all, all the favour, grace, and beauty wherewith heaven and men endowed her.

Ogni pelo arricciossi
E scolorossi al Saracino il viso,
La voce ch'era per uscir fermossi.

My master ought to have remembered what
A glittering prize can do to bend the will,
Yet at the crucial moment he forgot
And all his fortune changed from good to ill.

Of them I thought it wiser not to treat.
So, leave the bitter and retain the sweet.

Though it becomes not man himself to praise.

Man cannot relish peace before
He has experienced a state of war.

Amor de' far gentile un cor villano,
E non far d'un gentil contrario effetto.

Partial and unwise
Your judgment seems, as well all judgments may,
Wherein the losing party has not room
To plead before the judge pronounces doom.

Premio al ben servire
Pur viene al fin, se ben tarda a venire.