Giovanni Francesco Lottini

Giovanni (Giovanfrancesco) Francesco Lottini (1512 – August 1572) was an Italian politician, writer and Catholic Bishop.

Quotes

Avvedimenti Civili (published 1574)

• Non è differenza da i grandi, a gli uomini privati, mentre che dormono.
  • P. 18.
  • Translation: There is no difference between the noble and the shopkeeper, while they are asleep.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 374.

• Quanto più i luoghi son forti, tanto dee il principe esser più accurato in guardargli, perciochè non si sta da parte alcuna iu maggior pericolo, che da quella, d’onde gli par esser sicuro.
  • P. 27.
  • Translation: The stronger his fortresses, the more assiduous must the prince be in protecting them, for on no side does he incur greater risk than on that where he seems most secure.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 400.

• L’haver buone leggi è nato, come dice il proverbio, da cattivi costumi.
  • P. 38.
  • Translation: Having good laws comes, as the proverb says, from having bad habits.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 335.

• Ogni stato, come s’è detto, dee haver desiderio di pace, e fame con l’opere e con le parole dimostratione, ma con tutto ciò ne gli apparati militari, dee mostrarsi bellicoso, percioche la pace non armata è debole.
  • P. 190.
  • Translation: Every State, as has been said, should desire peace, and should manifest that desire both in word and action, but with all that, in her military preparations she should show herself warlike, for peace unarmed is a feeble thing.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 386.

• Tanto nuoce il voler pigliare occasione troppo acerba, quanto lasciarla maturar troppo.
  • P. 266.
  • Translation: It is just as harmful to pluck an opportunity too green, as to leave it till it is over-ripe.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 426.

• Gli scrittori maledici sono con molta più attentione letti, che non sono quelli che vanno adulandi.
  • P. 402.
  • Translation: Writers who depreciate are much more attentively read than those who flatter.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 306.

• Non è cosa che voglia tutta la diligenza dell’ uomo e che meno patisca gli errori, etiandio piccoli, quanto fa la guerra.
  • P. 498.
  • Translation: There is nothing which so calls for men’s closest attention, and so seldom pardons a mistake, however small, as war.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 373.

• Chi ha nimici potenti, dee per salvar se et ofTender loro, credere ferniamente due cose, verso di se contrarie; l’una che sieno arditi e prudenti, l’altra che con tutta la prudenza loro possano essi parimente errare.
  • P. 510.
  • Translation: He who has powerful enemies should, for his own protection and their undoing, firmly believe two things, apparently contradictory; first that they are both bold and prudent, and secondly that with all their prudence they are capable of making mistakes.
  • Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 265.