VITTORIO ALFIERI QUOTES

Italian dramatist & poet (1749-1803)

Vittorio Alfieri quote

Thou knowest not the endless artifices of a court. Invented crimes are often there alleged; but real ones, and those especially, which may offend his pride, are oftentimes not to a king divulged.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Agamemnon

Tags: crime, kings


The will of angry gods, an unknown force, are dragging me along, despite myself.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Agamemnon

Tags: fate


Such return awaits thy passion as thy passion merits.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Rosmunda

Tags: passion


The time for hope is gone, and come for fear.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Agamemnon

Tags: hope, fear


To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Rosmunda

Tags: guilt


The talent of making friends is not equal to the talent of doing without them.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: friends


Fortune, until now kind to me, begins to wear a frowning face.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Merope

Tags: fortune


Alas, 'tis force alone that can compel to virtuous actions a degenerate people.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Timoleon

Tags: power, virtue


If ardent passions push not men on to lofty enterprise, calm wisdom never will accomplish it.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Timoleon

Tags: passion, wisdom


Disgrace does not consist in the punishment, but in the crime.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Antigone

Tags: disgrace, crime


Where there are laws, innocence need not tremble.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Virginia

Tags: law, innocence


For one to grasp, whatever be his object, sov'reign power ... is an act of perilous presumption.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Timoleon

Tags: kings


There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do; there are movements that are involuntary proofs of what the soul feels.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical

Tags: silence


I am here a stranger to all feasts but those of blood.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Agamemnon

Tags: violence, revenge


First thoughts are not always the best.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Don Garzia

Tags: thought


That blood which thou hast spill'd, should join you closely in an eternal bond.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Rosmunda

Tags: murder


Joy, when it is excessive, overcomes as much as grief.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Agamemnon

Tags: joy, grief


A usurper always distrusts the whole world.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Polinice

Tags: trust


Sometimes blood, for the sake of sparing it, is spilled.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Timoleon

Tags: murder


Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.

VITTORIO ALFIERI

Oreste

Tags: courage, life