# Lope de Vega's most famous lines (with the work they come from)

"This is love: whoever has tasted it knows", "Who killed the Commander? Fuenteovejuna, sir" and "Let whoever can understand me; I understand myself": the most quoted verses and sayings of Spain's "Phoenix of Wits", each with the play, sonnet or book it comes from.

- 68 votes · 15 items
- Jan 30, 2022 · versionoriginal_errante
- https://even.best/en/l/5147/lope-de-vega-s-most-famous-lines-with-the-work-they-come-from

## Top 15

1. **To believe that a heaven fits inside a hell, / to give your life and soul to a disillusion: / this is love; whoever has tasted it knows.** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — Sonnet "Various effects of love".
2. **Sometimes what goes against the rules / pleases the taste for that very reason.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — The New Art of Writing Plays (1609).
3. **You tell me not to write, or not to live? / Make my love stop feeling, / and I will make my pen stop writing.** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Sonnet "To Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola".
4. **Oh freedom, great treasure, / for there is no good prison, / even in golden shackles!** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 322.
5. **Jealousy is the child of love, / but a bastard child, I confess.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — The Star of Seville.
6. **I want to make myself understood without saying anything. / Let whoever can understand me; I understand myself.** (3 · ▲5 ▼2) — Sonnet "Estoy sin ocasión desconfiada".
7. **"Who killed the Commander?" "Fuenteovejuna, sir." "And who is Fuenteovejuna?" "All of us, as one!"** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Fuenteovejuna (c. 1612–1614).
8. **I am king of my own will, / no business takes it from me, / and to be rich in leisure / is the height of happiness.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — The Peasant in His Nook (c. 1611).
9. **To rein in a woman is to set limits on the sea.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — The Lady Simpleton (1613), act III.
10. **Whoever longs to die is afraid of life.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Los enredos de Celauro, act III.
11. **But alas, you do not hear me; / yet life is short: / living, everything is lacking; / dying, everything is too much.** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — Poem "Pobre barquilla mía", in La Dorotea (1632).
12. **There is no perfect creature / unless at its conception / two wills are joined.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Knight of Olmedo (c. 1620).
13. **For though it may take away my hope, / it cannot take away my thoughts.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Servir con mala estrella.
14. **Truth is ashamed of nothing except being hidden.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Shepherds of Bethlehem (1612), book I.
15. **Harmony is pure love, / for love is concord.** (-1 · ▲2 ▼3) — Fuenteovejuna (c. 1612–1614).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.