Jacopo Sannazaro

Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.

Jacopo Sannazaro (28 July 1458 – 6 August 1530) was an Italian poet, humanist and epigrammist from Naples.

Quotes

• Al mondo mal non e senza rimedio.
  • Translation: There is no evil in the world without a remedy.
  • Ecloga Octava; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), "Evil".

• L'invidia, figliuol mio, se stessa macera,
  E si dilegua come agnel per fascino.
  • Translation: Envy, my son, wears herself away, and droops like a lamb under the influence of the evil eye.
  • Ecloga Octava; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), "Envy".

• Tanto è miser l'uom quant' ei si riputa.
  • Translation: Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.
  • Ecloga Octava; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), "Mind".

• Ne l'onde solca, e ne l'arena semina,
  E'l vago vento spera in rete accogliere
  Chi sue speranze fonda in cor di femina.
  • Translation: He ploughs the waves, sows the sand, and hopes to gather the wind in a net, who places his hopes on the heart of woman.
  • Ecloga Octava; "Plough the sands" found in Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), VII. Jeremy Taylor, Discourse on Liberty of Prophesying (1647), Introduction.