Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313-1375)

"Just as the end of mirth is heaviness, so sorrows are dispersed by the advent of joy."

• The Decameron (First Day, Introduction) by Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by G. H. McWilliam. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. This line was seemingly inspired by Proverbs 14:13.

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Procopius

Procopius (c. 490-565)

"While cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history."

• From The History of the Wars (Book I, section 1) by Procopius, translated by H. B. Dewing (Harvard University Press, originally published 1914).

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Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (c. 1809-1849)

"In no affairs of mere prejudice, pro or con, do we deduce inferences with entire certainty, even from the most simple data."

• From Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative of A. Gordon Pym in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Works (JKL Classics, 2017).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)

"For every man will perish, king and page,
Some in their beds and some in the deep sea,
And some upon the battle-field, maybe.
There is no help for it, all take the track,
For all must die and there is none comes back"

• The Canterbury Tales (The Knight's Tale) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated to modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan

"Don't you know it's the very finest things which are the subject of the most intense discussion?"

• The Book of the City of Ladies (Part I, chapter 2) by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999).

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Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu (10th-11th century)

"The heart decides what is to become of us. The great-hearted have great good fortune, and likewise the pusillanimous. Those who rise high have little peace, the reckless do not last, and those whose hearts are meek and mild are most likely to endure."

•  From Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji (chapter 35), translated by Royall Tyler (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Luo Guanzhong

Luo Guanzhong (14th century)

"Wise advice can counter the influence of treacherous officials, if and when it is heeded."

• The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (chapter 2) by Luo Guanzhong and translated by Martin Palmer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2018.  

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Hjalti (Saga of Hrolf Kraki)

Hjalti (character from the Saga of Hrolf Kraki)

"It is not possible to bend fate, nor can one stand against nature."

• From The Saga of Hrolf Kraki, written by an anonymous 14th century Icelander, and translated by Jesse Byock. New York: Penguin Classics, 1998.

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Homer

Homer (flourished c. 700 BCE)

"You have no need to be so stubborn. Even the gods themselves, for all their greater majesty, honor and power, are capable of being swayed."

• From The Iliad (Book 9, approx. line 500) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 2014).

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Mark Twain

Mark Twain (c. 1835-1910)

"In order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."

• From the The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Chapter II), by Mark Tain (originally published 1876).

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Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313-1375)

"A kissed mouth doesn't lose its freshness: like the moon it turns up new again."

• The Decameron (Second Day, Seventh Story) by Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by G. H. McWilliam. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.

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Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens (alias Mark Twain, c. 1835-1910)

"Although my book is intended  mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes ingaged in"

• From the preface of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Tain (originally published 1876). 

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Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

"I sometimes think that good readers are poets as singular, and as awesome, as great authors themselves."

• From Jorge Luis Borges' preface to A Universal History of Iniquity (originally published c. 1935), translated by Andrew Hurley in Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions (Penguin Classics, 1998).

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Gudrun Osvifsdottir

Gudrun Osvifsdottir (said to have lived c. 970-1050)

"Tarry-long brings little home."

• Quote attributed to Gudrun Osvifsdottir in the anonymously-written Laxdæla Saga (section 35), c. 13th century, translated by Keneva Kunz. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008.

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-1430)

"Despite what the slanderers say, there's a positively infinite number of countesses, baronesses, ladies, maidens, bourgeoises and women of every estate who are honourable and distinguished."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies (Part II, chapter 68) by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999).

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Luo Guanzhong

Luo Guanzhong (14th century)

"The wise bird carefully choses its branch; the wise servant likewise is careful in the choice of his master."

• The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (chapter 3) by Luo Guanzhong and translated by Martin Palmer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2018. 

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Thurid (Grettir's Saga)

Grettir's Saga  (anonymously-written Icelandic text, c. 14th century)

"Few things lead more certainly to misfortune than not being able to accept what is good."

• Spoken by the witch, Thurid, in the anonymously written Grettir's Saga (c. 14th century), translated by Jesse Byock (Oxford World's Classics, 2009).

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-1430)
"You should all resolve to rid yourselves henceforth of silly and irrational ideas, petty jealousies, stubbornness, contemptuous talk or scandalous behavior, all of which are things that twist the  mind and make a person unstable."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies (Part III, chapter 19) by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999).

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Luo Guangzhong (in the character of Cao Cao)

Luo Guanzhong (lived between 1315-1400)

"I would rather defeat the world than have the world defeat me!"

• A line attributed to the Chinese warlord, Cao Cao, in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (chapter 4), by Luo Guanzhong and translated by Martin Palmer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2018.

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George Orwell

George Orwell (c. 1903-1950)

"Future historians will have nothing to go upon except a mass of accusations and party propaganda."

• From Homage to Catalonia (Chapter 11) written by George Orwell and edited by Adam Hochschild and Lionel Trilling (Mariner Books, 1969).

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