"(Che) non torri superbi e forti mura, Non larghe fosse, non fiumi vicini Fan da’ nimici una città sicura, Ma la fede e il Valore valor de’ cittadini."

"Natura è gran maestra, e mai non erra."

"Chi pecca per amore, io non riprendo."

"Che la Fortuna ajuta i coraggiosi."

"Son ciance e be’ trovati Di romanzieri pazzi e spiritati."

"Rimembrar il ben perduto Fa più meschino lo presente stato."

"La meraviglia maraviglia nasce da ignoranza."

"Donna che sia pregata non sta forte."

"Quei che aggiunge sapere, aggiunge affanno; E men si dolgon quelli che men sanno."

"Tra i benefizi che ci ha fatto Iddio, Non è mica il minor quelle del vino."

"(Ma) vince Amore amor di padre ogni altro amore."

"(Che) nodo mai si forte non si stringe Che sciolto e rotto a lungo andar non sia."

"Che perduto il buon nome, una fanciulla, Per bella ch’ella sia, non val più nulla."

"Nessuno sa quel sia, che termin abbia La divina pietà verso di noi; Perchè ella è immensa, e men si può peccare Di quelle ch’ella possa perdonare."

"(Ma) così sono tutte le ragazze; Le più savie al di fuor son le più pazze."

"Chi semina del male, e poi si crede Raccor del bene, è temerario e stolto."

"(Che) la natura umana è fatta in guisa Che si mantien di lagrime e di risa."

"(Che) catena, fratello, di Moglie mogliera Fa un zucchero sembrare la galera."

"(Che) rinsanisce alcun pazzo talora, Ma il cervel de l’amante ognor peggiora."

"Ne le guerre d’Amore Amor (proverbio è trito,) Vince chi fugge, e non chi si cimenta."

"(Ma) l’animo gentile gentil sempre pon mente Al buon cuor di chi dà, non al presente."

"La moglie è vita, o coltello e capresto, Conforme vuoi."

"Ogni stato ha i suoi guai; e chi desia, Mutando il suo, trovarne un più giocondo, Cadde in una grandissima pazzia."

"Ciascun si stima di gran senno, e crede Dovizia aver di cio ch’ei più mendica; E dà del matto e del malenso altrui."

"L’uomo saggio sopra del suo dosso Non deve portar peso che lo sfianchi, Onde dica piangendo : io non lo posso."

"(Vuol) far d’ una ciriegia due bocconi."

"(Faceva far cento) castelli in aria."

"(Deh! come è ver che) subito trovato II bello place a chi non e malato."

"(Che) il leon non combatte con la mosca."

"Un padrone, quanti ha più servi, tanti più ha inimici."

"Non può il vitello, e vuol che porti il hue."

"Non può essere superiore di consigli, chi è inferiore di costumi."

"(Che) bel fin fa chi ben amando muore."

"Egli è meglio perdere, dicendo il vero, che vincere con le bugie."

"A donna non si può credere, eziam poi che è morta."

"L’uomo mai un disegno non fa, che la fortuna un altro non ne faccia."

"Un buon servo non dee mai avere ozio."

"La donna è sopra la pecunia, come il sol sopra il ghiaccio, che del continue lo strugge e consume."

"Chi scappa d’un punto ne schifa cento."

"Chi ha amore in seno sempre ha i sproni in fiance."

"Dilexi iustitiam et odi iniquitatem; propterea morior in exilio."

"Religion, and it can merge into nationalism as orthodoxy does with the Serbs and the Russians, offers both a cause worth dying for and the promise of eternal life. The crusaders did not leave their homes all over Europe and make the long and dangerous journey to the Holy Land just to acquire loot and land. There was more and better to be had much closer to home. They were driven by what they thought was a divine mission, to retrieve the land where Christ had once lived for Christendom. Many crusaders – kings such as Richard I of England, the Lionheart, and Philip II of France and great landed magnates – left behind properties, position and families and many never returned. Egged on by religious leaders such as Pope Gregory VII, who reminded the faithful of the passage from the Book of Jeremiah ‘Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood’, they killed indiscriminately those they thought of as infidels. In the massacres in Jerusalem in 1099 the streets were said to have run with blood, in some places up to the knees of the crusaders’ horses. ‘None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared,’ said a contemporary account."

"As a mere constellation of talent in different fields Anselm, Gregory VII and William the Conqueror were the greatest men in Europe during this period... William and Gregory were men of action of a kind rare at any time, but almost unknown in the Middle Ages: they were creators who dealt intuitively with confused situations, having little in precedent or business routine or learned construction to guide them. Gregory had an energy of purpose and clarity of vision in practical affairs for which no parallel can be found in these centuries."

"The reconciliation was short-lived. After being excommunicated a second time Henry crossed the Alps with his army and replaced Gregory with an “antipope” of his own. But the events themselves matter less than the myth that grew up around them. During the German Reformation Henry was lionized as the defender of national rights and the scourge of the Catholic pope, often being dubbed “the first Protestant.” And during Chancellor Otto von Bismarck’s struggle to rein in the Catholic church, he famously declared in the Reichstag on May 14, 1872: “We will not go to Canossa, neither in body nor in spirit.” He was voicing the new German Reich’s resolve to accept no outside interference in its affairs—political or religious. As a result Henry IV shivering outside the gates of Canossa became a familiar figure in late-nineteenth-century German art; the phrase “to go to Canossa” (nach Canossa gehen) entered the language as a synonym for craven surrender— almost the equivalent of “Munich” to the British and Americans."

"The importance of status is vividly illustrated by perhaps the most celebrated summit in German history: the meeting at Canossa in 1077 between Pope Gregory VII and Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. In German this is known as der Canossagang, the journey to Canossa; more aptly in Italian as l’umiliazione di Canossa, for it was truly a humiliation. In the Investiture Controversy—the power struggle between pope and emperor over the right to appoint bishops—Henry had renounced Gregory as pope, only to find himself excommunicated. This papal edict not only imperilled Henry’s immortal soul, it also laid him open to revolt by the German nobility. He sought a meeting with Gregory who, fearing violence, retreated to the castle of Canossa, in safe territory south of Parma. This forced the emperor to come to him. What exactly happened is shrouded in legend, but supposedly Henry arrived in the depths of winter, barefoot and in a pilgrim’s hair shirt, only to be kept waiting by Gregory for three days. When he was finally admitted to the castle on January 28, 1077, the emperor knelt before the pope and begged forgiveness. He was absolved and the two most powerful figures in Christendom then shared the Mass."

"That it has pleased God to make Holy Scripture obscure in certain places lest, if it were perfectly clear to all, it might be vulgarized and subjected to disrespect or be so misunderstood by people of limited intelligence as to lead them into error."

"Ne in prosa e detta ne in rima Cosa, che non sia stata detta prima."