I have not told half of what I saw.
Mosaic of Marco Polo displayed in the Palazzo Doria-Tursi, in Genoa, Italy

Marco Polo (September 15, 1254 – January 8–9, 1324) was an Italian merchant traveller from Venice. His book Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300) did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China.

Quotes

  • Non ho scritto neppure la metà delle cose che ho visto.
    • I have not told half of what I saw.
    • On his death-bed, when urged to retract "some of the seemingly incredible statements he made in his book", as quoted in The travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian (J. M. Dent, 1926), p. xxiv. Quote in Italian from Imago mundi seu Chronica (c. 1330) by Jacopo d'Acqui, as reported in the bibliographic note to Marco Polo: Storia del mercante che capì la Cina (2009) by Vito Bianchi.

In fiction

  • Io parlo parlo ... ma chi m'ascolta ritiene solo le parole che aspetta. ... Chi comanda al racconto non è la voce: è l'orecchio.
    • I speak and speak, ... but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. ... It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.
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