# Quote — Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron

> The nature of wit is such that its bite must be like that of a sheep rather than a dog, for if it were to bite the listener like a dog, it would no longer be wit but abuse.

- Author: [Giovanni Boccaccio](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio.md)
- Book: [The Decameron](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron.md)
- Original (it): Essere la natura de' motti cotale, che essi come la pecora morde deono cosi mordere l'uditore, e non come 'l cane: percio che, se come cane mordesse il motto, non sarebbe motto, ma villania.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio#The_Decameron_(c._1350)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron/the-nature-of-wit

## More from this book

> An oak is not felled by a single blow of the axe.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron/an-oak-is-not.md)

> Charming ladies, the beauty of a flock of white doves is better enhanced by a black crow than by a pure white swan.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron/charming-ladies-the.md)

> They banish us to the kitchen, there to tell stories to the cat.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/giovanni-boccaccio/the-decameron/they-banish-us-to-the.md)