Pietro Aretino

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Nothing, it appears to me is of greater value in a man than the power of judgment; and the man who has it may be compared to a chest filled with books, for he is the son of nature and the father of art.