“The nature of wit is such that its bite must be like that of a sheep rather than a dog, for if it were to bite the listener like a dog, it would no longer be wit but abuse.”
Essere la natura de' motti cotale, che essi come la pecora morde deono cosi mordere l'uditore, e non come 'l cane: percio che, se come cane mordesse il motto, non sarebbe motto, ma villania.
Sixth Day, Third Story
The Decameron (c. 1350)
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Giovanni Boccaccio27
Italian author and poet 1313–1375Related quotes
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