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Petrarch

71 quotes

• “This age of ours consequently has let fall, bit by bit, some of the richest and sweetest fruits that the tree of knowledge has yielded; has thrown away the results of the vigils and labours of the most illustrious men of genius, things of more value, I am almost tempted to say, than anything else in the whole world.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer. I have had the expedition in mind for many years; for, as you know, I have lived in this region from infancy, having been cast here by that fate which determines the affairs of men. Consequently the mountain, which is visible from a great distance, was ever before my eyes, and I conceived the plan of some time doing what I have at last accomplished to-day.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1336 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro (26 April 1336), "The Ascent of Mount Ventoux" in Familiar Letters as translated by James Harvey Robinson (1898); the name Mount Ventosum relates to it being a windy mountain.

• “Hitherto your eyes have been darkened and you have looked too much, yes, far too much, upon the things of earth. If these so much delight you what shall be your rapture when you lift your gaze to things eternal! When I heard her thus speak, though my fear still clung about me, with trembling voice I made reply in Virgil's words —”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1354 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: De remediis utriusque fortunae (1354), Book II

• “Man has no greater enemy than himself. I have acted contrary to my sentiments and inclination; throughout our whole lives we do what we never intended, and what we proposed to do, we leave undone.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in An Examination of the Advantages of Solitude and of Its Operations (1808) by Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

• “Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in Notable Thoughts About Women : A Literary Mosaic (1882) by Maturin Murray Ballou, p. 311

• “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.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Epistola ad Posteros [Letter to Posterity] in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 59

• “Books have led some to learning and others to madness, when they swallow more than they can digest.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia" (1962) by Jacob Morton Braude, p. 75

• “How fortune brings to earth the over-sure!”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in The International Thesaurus of Quotations‎ (1970) by Rhoda Thomas Tripp

• “It is better to will the good than to know the truth.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in The Renaissance : Essays in Interpretation (1982) by André Chastel , p 107

• “It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1346 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: De vita solitaria (1346) as quoted in Madalyn Aslan's Jupiter Signs: How to Improve Your Luck, Career, Health, Finances, Appearance, and Relationships Through the New Astrology (2003) by Madalyn Aslan

• “Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Inspirational Quotes (2005) by Wendy Toliver. p. 446

• “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.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1346 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: De vita solitaria (1346) as quoted in Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing‎ (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 144

• “Here I have established my Rome, my Athens, and my spiritual fatherland; here I gather all the friends I now have or did have, not only those ... who have lived with me, but also those who died many centuries ago, known to me only through their writings. ... I am where I wish to be.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On his library at Vaucluse, as quoted in "Livelier Than the Living," by Catherine Nicholson, The New York Review of Books (Vol. LXXI, No. 11, June 20, 2024)

• “O thou of all knowledge and of all wisdom, true and only God, thou giver of true glory, Lord of all virtue, supreme Saviour Jesus, see that supplicant and in my soul genuflected before thee I sincerely beg thee that, if thou wilt not give me anything else, at least grant me this, that I may be a good man: Nor will I ever be such except by loving Thee greatly and devoutly adoring Thee, for this I was born, not for letters; which, if they alone occupy the mind, swell and destroy instead of edifying, and are to the soul shining chains, painful travail, thunderous burden.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia (against Venetian followers of Averroes). Quoted in Un’ardente preghiera di Francesco Petrarca, Radio Spada (July 18, 2024)

• “(About king David) I would like to have his Psalter in my hands and before my eyes during the day, and under my head at night and at the point of death, considering this a source of glory for me not less than for the greatest philosophers, the mimes of Sophron.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Voi ch'ascoltate in rime sparse il suono di quei sospiri ond'io nudriva 'l core in sul mio primo giovenile errore quand'era in parte altr'uom da quel ch'i' sono.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Et del mio vaneggiar vergogna è 'l frutto, e 'l pentersi, e 'l conoscer chiaramente che quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ché i be' vostr'occhi, donna, mi legaro.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Who overrefines his argument brings himself to grief.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1327 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Canzone 11 [c. 1327]", as reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1968), p. 163

• “Tempo da travagliare è quanto è 'l giorno.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ma pur sí aspre vie né sí selvagge cercar non so ch'Amor non venga sempre ragionando con meco, et io co llui.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ahi nova gente oltra misura altera, irreverente a tanta et a tal madre!”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Per fama huom s'innamora.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Inanzi al dí de l'ultima partita huom beato chiamar non si convene.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Da'duo begli occhi che legato m'ànno.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Perché la vita è breve, et l'ingegno paventa a l'alta impresa, né di lui né di lei molto mi fido.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Questa vita terrena è quasi un prato, che 'l serpente tra' fiori et l'erba giace; et s'alcuna sua vista agli occhi piace, è per lassar piú l'animo invescato.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Voi dunque, se cercate aver la mente anzi l'extremo dí queta già mai, seguite i pochi, et non la volgar gente.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Vinse Hanibàl, et non seppe usar poi ben la vittoriosa sua ventura.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Pandolfo mio, quest'opere son frali da ll lungo andar, ma 'l nostro studio è quello dche fa per fama gli uomini immortali.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Amor regge suo imperio senza spada.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Intendami chi pò, ch'i' m'intend'io.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Proverbio "ama chi t'ama" è fatto antico.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Per bene star si scende molte miglia.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Tal par gran meraviglia, et poi si sprezza.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Una chiusa bellezza è piú soave.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Né del vulgo mi cal, né di Fortuna.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Vero è 'l proverbio, ch'altri cangia il pelo anzi che 'l vezzo.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Le bionde treccie sopra il collo sciolte.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Io parlo per ver dire, non per odio d'altrui, né per disprezzo.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “S'amor non è, che dunque è quel ch'io sento? Ma s'egli è amor, perdio, che cosa et quale? Se bona, onde l'effecto aspro mortale? Se ria, onde sí dolce ogni tormento?”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Pace non trovo, et non ò da far guerra; e temo, et spero; et ardo, et son un ghiaccio.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ché bel fin fa chi ben amando more.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Sarò qual fui, vivrò com'io son visso.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Sol se stessa, et nulla altra, simiglia.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Pien d'un vago penser che me desvia da tutti gli altri.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Chi po dir com'egli arde è 'n picciol foco.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: [To Laura in Death, canzone] 137", as reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1968), p. 163. (Bartlett’s references an older edition of the Canzoniere where sonnets (and other verse types) are numbered separately. T…

• “Un bel morir tutta la vita honora.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1348 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Canzone 207 (c. 1348), st. 5

• “Beato in sogno et di languir contento, d'abbracciar l'ombre et seguir l'aura estiva, nuoto per mar che non à fondo o riva, solco onde, e 'n rena fondo, et scrivo in vento.”

  Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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