Francisco Leiva

Francisco Leiva Ramírez de Arellano (1630 – 1676) was a dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age.

Quotes

In the lawyer's house, one enters for the same reason that dogs enter a church. Why is that? Because they find the door open.

• (Que) el ser malas las mujeres
  Es delito delos hombres.
  • If women are bad the fault is that of men.
  • El Socorro de los Mantos, act 1 — loq. Inés (tr. Harbottle and Hume, 1907)

• En casa del letrado
  Se entra por el caso mismo
  Que los perros en la iglesia.
  ¿Porque?
     Porque hallan abierto.
  • In the lawyer's house, one enters for the same reason that dogs enter a church. Why is that? Because they find the door open.
  • La Dama Presidente, act 2 — loq. Octavio (tr. Harbottle and Hume, 1907)

• (Porque) en los que nobles nacen
  Es el mas leve defecto
  Mas culpable, cuando
  Los que deben dar ejemplo.
  • For in the nobly born
    The slightest evil taint
    More heinous is, for they
    Should fair example set.
  • La Dama Presidente, act 3 — loq. Angela (tr. Harbottle and Hume, 1907)
  • i.e. Noblesse oblige

• (Que) nunca, sin que le pidan,
  Un hombre ha de dar consejo,
  Pues es presumir que sabe
  Mas, y aqueso sabe menos.
  • Advice should never tendered be
    But given only by request.
    He claims who offers counsel free
    That he is wiser than the rest.
  • Cuando no se aguarda, act 1 — loq. El Principe (tr. Harbottle and Hume, 1907)

External links

• T. B. Harbottle and Martin Hume (eds.) Dictionary of Quotations: Spanish (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., 1907), pp. 114, 121, 131, 282