"La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen."

"In his short tales he is most successful when he indulges in the sentimental; he is less attractive when he gives utterance to his pessimistic feeling."

"In our poor human nature, joy and sorrow often manifest themselves by the same symptoms; and a piece of good news will agitate us in the same way as a piece of bad news."

"There is not in the circle of human happiness a cup of honey that has not its drop of gall."

"To boast of the help you gave a brother in need is to cancel the good of your deed."

""Be glad," she said, "God brought you to fifty years in your world"— but didn't know there's no division between, as I see it, my days that have passed and Noah's of which I've heard. In the world I have nothing but the hour I'm in, which stands for a moment and then like a cloud moves on."

"One of the more controversial aspects of Samuel HaNagid's poetry is the fact that many of them are erotic in nature. More shocking is that many of these erotic themes are replete with homosexual themes. This is both surprising and not. It is surprising since HaNagid's poetry reveals him as a man who strictly interpreted god's laws, and did nothing to actively go against it. As anyone who has read Leviticus knows, homosexual activity is considered a great sin. These themes, however, are unsurprising when looking at the greater canon of medieval poetry, especially that of the Arab lands. Themes of intense sexuality and even homosexuality are not uncommon among Andalusian Muslim poetry."

"The truth hurts like a thorn at first; but in the end it blossoms like a rose."

"Born during this era of Islamic rule, the famous Golden Age of Spanish Jewry (circa 900-1200) produced such luminaries as: statesman and diplomat Hasdai ibn Shaprut, vizier and army commander Shmuel ha-Nagid, poet-philosophers Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi, and at the apex of them all, Moses Ben Maimon, also known among the Spaniards as Maimonides."

"Must we invoke some sort of cognitive dissonance to explain how the same man could, with no apparent sense of inconsistency, live a life of a prominent rabbinical authority and that of a philandering bon vivant?"

"Ningun hombre se llame desdichado Aunque le siga el hado executivo, Supuesto que en Argel viva cautivo, O al remo en las galeras condenado. Ni el propio loco por furioso atado, O el que perdido llora estado altivo Ni el que á deshonra truxo el tiempo esquivo, O por necesidad á humilde estado. Sufrir qualquiera pena es fácil cosa, Que ninguna atormenta tan deveras, Que no la venza el sufrimiento tanto; Mas el que tiene la muger zelosa, Ese tiene desdicha, Argel, galeras, Locura, perdicion, deshonra y llanto."

"A Carvalho le molestaba tomar el sol como un lagarto, Pero Teresa demostraba una gran solidaridad con el termostato habitual en todas las mujeres, animales de sangre fría que necesitan el sol y son capaces de someterse a sus rayos con la beatífica expresión del comulgante o incluso con el éxtasis del mistico dispuesto a la entrega divina."

"Es ya razon de estado y aun forzoso En la buena política y sus leyes, No casar en sus tierras á los reyes."

"(Que) de un reino los cimientos Son la espada y son la pluma."

"Con veinte escudos Que harán hablar á los mudos, Me dice el procurador, Que de aquí me sacará."

"(Que) echar candado â los labios Con nombre de sufrimiento O no es tener sentimiento O es alentar los agravios."

"Lector, esto libro te ofrezco, sin que me aya mandado Señor alguno que le escriva, ni menos me ayan importunado mis amigos que le estampe, sino solamente por mi gusto, por mi antojo y por mi voluntad."

"(Que) sin testigos amor Hace sus tiros mejor."

"Son tantos los ingratos, Que no hubiera calabozos, Si se hubieran de prender, En el mundo para todos."

"(Que) siempre un hombre de bien Fué muy fácil de engañar."

"(Dice el refran) Si quieres un lindo rato, Bebe frio; si una hora, Come en tu casa temprano; Si un buen dia, hazte la barba; Si una semana, vé al baño; Si un buen mes, mata un lechon; Y si quieres un buen año, Cásate con mujer limpia."

"Gloria summa tibi, laus et benedictio, Christe, Qui praestas famulis haec bona grata tuis."

"Vox, philomela, tua cantus edicere cogit, Inde tui laudem rustica lingua canit."

"Vox, philomela, tua curarum semina pellit, Recreat et blandis anxia corda sonis."

"Porrige dulcisonas attentis auribus escas; Nolo tacere velis, nolo tacere velis."

"Las mujeres son espejo Que viendo vuestro retrato, Si os descuidais y otro llega, Hará con él otro tanto."

"Do son todas mugeres, nunca mengua renzilla."

"En cosas, mayormente de mujeres, Jamas tuvo segura la balanza: Allí son mas inciertos los placeres, Y está mucho mas cierta la mudanza."

"De Carlos el Rey es hija, Mas es muger, y ha mas años La mudanza en las mugeres, Que no la nobleza en Carlos."

"Diferentes son las leyes Mas no hay ley en pecho humano Cuando llega á ser el alma Idólatra de un cuidado."

"Su confuso entendimiento Es codicioso letrado, Que hace leyes siempre al gusto De que llega á consultarlo."

"(Pues) necio suelen llamar A quien se pone á curar Con médico poco sano."

"Quien matar quisier su can, achaque le levanta porque non le dé del pan."

"La fe que un enojo muda Fe no muy segura fué."

"Veces hay que por correr Mucho mas tarde se llega."

"(Pero) pésame que corra Esta opinion, aunque falsa; Que este decir mal as salsa Que á muchos de pan ahorra."

"Nuestras vidas son los ríos Que van a dar en Ia mar, Que es el morir."

"Cuánto gozo a la flor deja Preciosamente la abeja!"

"Con el honor le vencí, porque siempre los villanos tienen su honor en las manos, y siempre miran por sí; que por tantas variedades, es bien que se entienda y crea, que el honor se fue al aldea huyendo de las ciudades."

"Per mantas guizas m'es datz Joys e deport e solatz; Que per vergiers e per pratz, E per fuelhas e per flors, E pel temps qu'es refrescatz, Vei alegrar chantadors; Mas al meu chan neus ni glatz No m'ajuda, ni estatz, Ni res, mas dieus et amors."

"The art of poetry, the gay science, is a most subtle and most delightful sort of writing or composition. It is sweet and pleasurable to those who propound and to those who reply; to utterers and to hearers. This science, or the wisdom or knowledge dependent on it, can only be possessed, received, and acquired by the inspired spirit of the Lord God; who communicates it, sends it, and influences by it, those alone, who well and wisely, arid discreetly and correctly, can create and arrange, and compose and polish, and scan and measure feet, and pauses, and rhymes, and syllables, and accents, by dextrous art, by varied and by novel arrangement of words. And even then, so sublime is the understanding of this art, and so difficult its attainment, that it can only be learned, possessed, reached, and known to the man who is of noble and of ready invention, elevated and pure discretion, sound and steady judgment; who has seen, and heard, and read many and divers books and writings; who understands all languages; who has, moreover, dwelt in the courts of kings and nobles; and who has witnessed and practised many heroic feats. Finally, he must be of high birth, courteous, calm, chivalnc, gracious; he must be polite and graceful; he must possess honey, and sugar, and salt, and facility and gayety in his discourse."

"No common soul dwelt within that lifeless form: a vast knowledge, a rare wisdom, a rich experience, a devout trust, are plunged into the unfathomable night, and hidden from our eyes."

"Mysterious night, when the first man but knew Thee by report, unseen, and heard they name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue? Yet ’neath a curtain of translucent dew Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came, And lo! creation widened on his view! Who could have thought what darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, oh Sun? Or who could find, Whil’st fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed, That to such endless orbs thou mad’st us blind? Weak man! Why to shun death, this anxious strife? If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?"

"I wish to record the continuance, or rather the increase, of my delight in the Unitarian Service. For a long time did I avoid going to Church, except to the Lord's Supper, because the service had grown intolerable to me. I now rejoice at the approach of Sunday. This very morning while at Chapel, I had the strongest and deepest conviction that I had never witnessed anything so really sublime as the whole worship in which I was joining. I can also attest the admirable behaviour of the Congregation. There is a marked attention on all sides. In a word, the whole service is a reality. I heartily thank God for having been made acquainted with the Unitarian Worship. I have seen nothing superior, nor even equal to it."

"He who loves not a beautiful woman with all his five senses esteems not nature in its greatest care and its highest achievement."

"All sinners have less turpitude than the hypocrite, for the former, though they sin against God, do not sin with God or in God, whilst the hypocrite sins against God and also with God, since he takes Him as an instrument of his sin."

"I hold him to be a fool who throughout his life is dying with fear that he must die; and to be a bad man he who lives so careless of it as if death did not exist [...]. The only wise man is he who lives through each day as if at any hour he may die."

"When the devil preaches the world is coming to an end."

"Is there any devil equal to a flatterer, to an envious man, to a false friend, to an evil companion ? Well, the poor man is free from all these; for he is neither flattered, nor envied; he has no friend, good of bad, and no one keeps him company. The poor it is that live well and die better."

"The philosopher is not he who knows where the treasure is, but he who sets to work and recovers it."