“Black was this queen as jet, yet on her eyes
Sweet loveliness in black attired lies.”
Bruna e si, ma il bruno il bel non toglie.
Canto XII, stanza 21 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
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Torquato Tasso94
Italian poet 1544–1595Related quotes
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
" The Beggar Maid http://home.att.net/%7ETennysonPoetry/tbm.htm", st. 2 (1842)
Juan Ramón Jimenéz book Platero
Source: Platero and I (1917), Ch. 1 : Platero, as translated by Eloïse Roach (1957).
“Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.”
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838) French diplomat
Noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, doux comme l'amour.
frequently misattributed to Talleyrand, no primary source exists, its not his style of speech, and he famously drank tea not coffee.
Misattributed
“Black is a pearl in a woman's eye.”
George Chapman An Humorous Day's Mirth
An Humorous Day's Mirth; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Close beside my knowledge lies my black ignorance.”
Friedrich Nietzsche book Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra