Quotes by Petrarch
- Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
- Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
- 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.
- How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.
- How fortune brings to earth the over-sure!
- It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.
- Love is the crowning grace of humanity.
- Man has no greater enemy than himself.
- A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.
- Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
- And tears are heard within the harp I touch.
- Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.
- The aged love what is practical while impetuous youth longs only for what is dazzling.
- There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.
- To be able to say how much love, is love but little.
- To begin with myself, then, the utterances of men concerning me will differ widely, since in passing judgment almost every one is influenced not so much by truth as by preference, and good and evil report alike know no bounds.
- True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.
- What name to call thee by, O virgin fair, I know not, for thy looks are not of earth And more than mortal seems thy countenances.
- Who naught suspects is easily deceived.
- Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure.
- Do you suppose there is any living man so unreasonable that if he found himself stricken with a dangerous ailment he would not anxiously desire to regain the blessing of health?