4 Italian Quotes About Life, Checked Against the Text
Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Leonardo and Calvino on how to live, each read in a named translation, plus eight popular lines we could not confirm.
Updated
The earlier version of this page offered twelve "Italian quotes about life" and most of them could not be traced to the books they were credited to. This one keeps the four lines that can be read in a real text, says which translation each comes from, and lists what was dropped. They are about living well and living with others, not about romance, so they suit a card, a toast or the first line of a letter when you want something steadier than a pet name.
Boccaccio opens a book of plague survivors with kindness
'Tis humane to have compassion on the afflicted.
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Proem (J. M. Rigg translation; Italian text written c. 1349–53)
This is the first sentence of the Proem, the author's preface, in Rigg's English, which is read on Project Gutenberg (ebook 3726). Boccaccio goes on to say that he is writing for people who are suffering, women in particular, because he once needed comfort for a consuming love and found it in others. The ten young people of the frame story then leave Florence during the plague of 1348 and tell stories to pass the time. Other translators word the opening differently, so say which edition you are quoting.
Where it fits: a note to someone who is ill or grieving, or the first line of a letter to a partner who has had a hard month. It does not need a romantic setting; it asks for kindness.
Machiavelli on titles: the real line is about soldiers
…it is men who give lustre to titles and not titles to men.
Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, Book III, chapter 38 (Ninian Hill Thomson translation; the Discourses were printed in 1531)
The older version of this page quoted "It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles". That phrasing does not appear in the Thomson translation on Gutenberg (ebook 10827). The sentence above does, and it closes a passage in chapter 38 about what kind of captain an army will trust: one who leads by his own deeds, so that rank won by chance or intrigue takes away reputation rather than bringing it. The point is not about democracy or birth. It is about earning a role by doing the work.
Where it fits: a wedding toast, where "husband" and "wife" are titles to be lived up to; leave the soldiers out and open with "…", since it is the end of a longer sentence.
Leonardo on a day well spent
As a day well spent procures a happy sleep, so a life well employed procures a happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Richter no. 1173
Jean Paul Richter collected and numbered Leonardo's manuscript notes in 1883, and this is entry 1173 in his English edition (Gutenberg ebook 5000, "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci"). It sits among short maxims about learning and old age, such as "Life if well spent, is long". There is no known date for the note and it is not a letter; the common "Leonardo wrote this near the end of his life" is not in the source, so this page does not repeat it.
Where it fits: an evening-note or goodnight message works naturally with the first half. If you want a few of those, see our goodnight paragraphs.
Calvino: the inferno is here, and so is the way out
The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together.
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (1972; William Weaver translation)
This is from the closing pages, where Marco Polo answers Kublai Khan. The passage goes on to give two ways to bear it. One is easy for most: accept the inferno until you no longer see it. The other asks for constant attention: look for what, in the midst of the inferno, is not inferno, and make it endure and give it space. The second half is the part worth quoting to someone you love. The passage was checked on a search result that reproduces the Weaver text, not on a page of the printed book, so confirm the wording against your copy.
Where it fits: an anniversary letter after a difficult year, where the point is "we protected something good". Compare the more romantic Italian lines in our Italian quotes for love and marriage, or the lighter Italian jokes about romance.
Lines removed from the earlier version
These appeared on the old page. None could be confirmed in a text during this rewrite, so they are not repeated as quotes.
| Credited line | Credited to | Problem |
|---|---|---|
| "Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us…" | Petrarch, Letters on Familiar Matters | No source text checked |
| "Patience is the most heroic of the virtues…" | Leopardi, Zibaldone | Not confirmed in a text; no page given |
| "One of the greatest consolations of this life is friendship." | Manzoni, The Betrothed | Not confirmed in a text |
| "Life is full of strange absurdities…" | Pirandello | Not checked against the play |
| "We are all like the grass in the wind." | Deledda, Reeds in the Wind | Not checked against a translated text |
| "You have to live spherically." | Fellini, Fellini on Fellini | Not checked against the book |
| "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind…" | Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty | Widely repeated, no page found |
| "Things change, it's the only certainty." | Ferrante, The Story of a New Name | Not checked against the novel |
How to use one of these without sounding borrowed
- Name the book and the translator. "Boccaccio, in Rigg's translation" is more honest than "an old Italian saying", and a reader can look it up.
- Quote one sentence and add one of your own. A line from Calvino followed by "this year, you were the part that was not inferno" says more than the quote.
- Do not shorten for effect. The Machiavelli sentence loses its meaning when cut from the captain it describes; the "…" at the start tells the reader it is a fragment.
For a letter built around a quote, see how to write a love letter.
Sources: J. M. Rigg, trans., The Decameron, Vol. I (Project Gutenberg 3726); N. H. Thomson, trans., Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius (Gutenberg 10827); J. P. Richter, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (Gutenberg 5000); William Weaver's translation of Calvino's Invisible Cities, read in a search result. Cover photo: Florence, Pixabay (Michelle-Maria).
