Tomás de Iriarte

Tomás de Iriarte (or Yriarte; 18 September 1750 – 17 September 1791) was a Spanish neoclassical poet.

Attributed

Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1880)

C. T. Ramage, Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors, rev. ed. (1880) pp. 524–33

•   Guarde para su regalo
  Esta sentencia un autor;
  Si el sabio no aprueba, malo!
  Si el necio aplaude, peor!
  • Let every author regard this maxim for a rule: If the wise do not express their approbation, it is bad; if the fool applaud, it is worse.
  • Maxim for an Author. Fab. 3

• Perdonadme, sutiles y altas Musas,
  Las que hacéis vanidad de ser confusas.
  Os puedo yo decir con mejor modo
  Que sin la claridad os falta todo?
• Thus, might I drop into an author's ear
    A piece of counsel, I would say, "Be sure,
  Whate'er you write, to keep your meaning clear;
    For dulness only ever is obscure. — Rockliff
  • Let Your Meaning Be Clear. Fab. 6

Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

C. N. Douglas, Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical (1917)

• Dress does not give knowledge.

• Let the man who despises style, and says that he attends to the matter, recollect that if the lace is sold at a higher price than the noble metal, it owes its chief value to its elegance, and not to its material.

• The foolish and vulgar are always accustomed to value equally the good and the bad.

• The quill hath a good tongue.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Tomás de Iriarte on Wikipedia