Petrarch Quotes
-
For virtue only finds eternal Fame.
→ -
It is better to will the good than to know the truth.
→ -
Love is the crowning grace of humanity.
→ -
Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
→ -
And I live on, but in grief and self-contempt, Left here without the light I loved so much, In a great tempest and with shrouds unkempt.
→ -
I saw the tracks of angels in the earth: the beauty of heaven walking by itself on the world.
→ -
Those spacious regions where our fancies roam, Pain'd by the past, expecting ills to come, In some dread moment, by the fates assign'd, Shall pass away, nor leave a rack behind; And Time's revolving wheels shall lose at last The speed that spins the future and the past: And, sovereign of an undisputed throne, Awful eternity shall reign alone.
→ -
You keep to your own ways and leave mine to me.
→ -
Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure.
→ -
Gold, silver, jewels, purple garments, houses built of marble, groomed estates, pious paintings, caparisoned steeds, and other things of this kind offer a mutable and superficial pleasure; books give delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.
→ -
Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
→ -
Whyle I was abowte to chaunge myn olde lyff-- What sorowe I suffred, dyseese, angre and stryff, Cracchynge myn here, my chekys all totare, Wrythynge my fyngres for angwysshe and care, Watrynge the erthe with my byttre salte teres That the crye of my syghes ascended to Goddys eres, My knees with myn handys grasped togedyre soore, And yitt I stode the same man I was afore Tyl a depe profounde remembraunce att the laste Hadd all my wrecchednesse afore myn eyn caste
→ -
How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.
→ -
Virtue is health, vice is sickness.
→ -
Events appear sad, pleasant, or painful, not because they are so in reality, but because we believe them to be so and the light in which we look at them depends upon our own judgment.
→ -
My flowery and green age was passing away, and I feeling a chill in the fires had been wasting my heart, for I was drawing near the hillside above the grave.
→ -
Where are the numerous constructions erected by Agrippa, of which only the Pantheon remains? Where are the splendorous palaces of the emperors?
→ -
The time will come when every change shall cease, This quick revolving wheel shall rest in peace: No summer then shall glow, not winter freeze; Nothing shall be to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now shall ever last.
→ -
The end of doubt is the beginning of repose.
→ -
Wanting is not enough, long and you attain it.
→ -
Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.
→ -
Nothing mortal is enduring, and there is nothing sweet which does not presently end in bitterness.
→ -
Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown.
→ -
I rejoiced in my progress, mourned my weaknesses, and commiserated the universal instability of human conduct.
→ -
I have taken pride in others, never in myself.
→ -
I know and love the good, yet, ah! the worst pursue.
→ -
Life in itself is short enough, but the physicians with their art, know to their amusement, how to make it still shorter.
→ -
It may be only glory that we seek here, but I persuade myself that, as long as we remain here, that is right. Another glory awaits us in heaven and he who reaches there will not wish even to think of earthly fame.
→ -
I freeze and burn, love is bitter and sweet, my sighs are tempests and my tears are floods, I am in ecstasy and agony, I am possessed by memories of her and I am in exile from myself.
→ -
A good death does honour to a whole life.
→