'You must read, you must persevere, you must sit up nights, you must inquire, and exert the utmost power of your mind.'

'Human it is to have compassion on the unhappy.'

'Every man is the artisan of his own fortune.'

'While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman.'

'The wise man, to achieve happiness on Earth, should always tread the beaten track away from worldly desires and he should curb wanton eyes.'

'Indeed its safer to be feared than loved.'

'Everyone can master a grief but he that has it.'

'Everyone can see, but few can really understand.'

'Wicked men obey for fear; good men, from love.'

The Decameron