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Petrarch
71 quotes
“Il sonno è veramente, qual uom dice, parente de la morte, e 'l cor sottragge a quel dolce penser che 'n vita il tene.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Le città son nemiche, amici i boschi.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nulla al mondo è che non possano i versi.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“L'alta beltà ch'al mondo non à pare noia t'è, se non quanto il bel thesoro di castità par ch'ella adorni et fregi.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Co la morte a lato cerco del viver mio novo consiglio, et veggio 'l meglio, et al peggior m'appiglio.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Non è sí duro cor che, lagrimando, pregando, amando, talor non si smova, né sí freddo voler, che non si scalde.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ché 'ncontra 'l ciel non val difesa humana.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“La vita fugge, et non s'arresta una hora.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Veramente siam noi polvere et ombra, veramente la voglia cieca e 'ngorda, veramente fallace è la speranza.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“L'acque parlan d'amore, et l'òra e i rami et gli augelletti et i pesci e i fiori et l'erba, tutti inseme pregando ch'i' sempre ami.Ma tu, ben nata, che dal ciel mi chiami, per la memoria di tua morte acerba preghi ch'i' sprezzi 'l mondo e i suoi dolci hami.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I' so' colei che ti die' tanta guerra, et compie' mia giornata inanzi sera.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cosí nel mondo sua ventura à ciascun dal dí che nasce.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O che lieve è inganar chi s'assecura!”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Canzon, s'uom trovi in suo amor viver queto, di': Muor' mentre se' lieto, ché morte al tempo è non duol, ma refugio; et chi ben pò morir, non cerchi indugio.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ei sa che 'l vero parlo: ché legno vecchio mai non róse tarlo.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obedir a Natura in tutto è il meglio.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) said by 1374 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I rejoiced in my progress, mourned my weaknesses, and commiserated the universal instability of human conduct. I had well-nigh forgotten where I was and our object in coming; but at last I dismissed my anxieties, which were better suited to other surroundings, and resolved to look about me and see what we had come to see. The sinking sun and the lengthening shadows of the mountain were already warning us that the time was near at hand when we must go. As if suddenly wakened from sleep, I turned about and gazed toward the west. I was unable to discern the summits of the Pyrenees, which form the barrier between France and Spain; not because of any intervening obstacle that I know of but owing simply to the insufficiency of our mortal vision.”
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), as translated by James Harvey Robinson (1898)
“My brother, waiting to hear something of St. Augustine's from my lips, stood attentively by. I call him, and God too, to witness that where I first fixed my eyes it was written: "And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not." I was abashed, and, asking my brother (who was anxious to hear more), not to annoy me, I closed the book, angry with myself that I should still be admiring earthly things who might long ago have learned from even the pagan philosophers that nothing is wonderful but the soul, which, when great itself, finds nothing great outside itself. Then, in truth, I was satisfied that I had seen enough of the mountain; I turned my inward eye upon myself, and from that time not a syllable fell from my lips until we reached the bottom again. Those words had given me occupation enough, for I could not believe that it was by a mere accident that I happened upon them. What I had there read I believed to be addressed to me and to no other, remembering that St. Augustine had once suspected the same thing in his own case, when, on opening the book of the Apostle, as he himself tells us, the first words that he saw there were, "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
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), as translated by James Harvey Robinson (1898)
“I certainly will not reject the praise you bestow upon me for having stimulated in many instances, not only in Italy but perhaps beyond its confines also, the pursuit of studies such as ours, which have suffered neglect for so many centuries; I am, indeed, almost the oldest of those among us who are engaged in the cultivation of these subjects. But I cannot accept the conclusion you draw from this, namely, that I should give place to younger minds, and, interrupting the plan of work on which I am engaged, give others an opportunity to write something, if they will, and not seem longer to desire to reserve everything for my own pen. How radically do our opinions differ, although, at bottom, our object is the same! I seem to you to have written everything, or at least a great deal, while to myself I appear to have produced almost nothing.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1373 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Giovanni Boccaccio (28 April 1373) as quoted in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 417
“You, my friend, by a strange confusion of arguments, try to dissuade me from continuing my chosen work by urging, on the one hand, the hopelessness of bringing my task to completion, and by dwelling, on the other, upon the glory which I have already acquired. Then, after asserting that I have filled the world with my writings, you ask me if I expect to equal the number of volumes written by Origen or Augustine. No one, it seems to me, can hope to equal Augustine. Who, nowadays, could hope to equal one who, in my judgment, was the greatest in an age fertile in great minds? As for Origen, you know that I am wont to value quality rather than quantity, and I should prefer to have produced a very few irreproachable works rather than numberless volumes such as those of Origen, which are filled with grave and intolerable errors.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1373 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Giovanni Boccaccio (28 April 1373) as quoted in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 418
“Continued work and application form my soul's nourishment. So soon as I commenced to rest and relax I should cease to live. I know my own powers. I am not fitted for other kinds of work, but my reading and writing, which you would have me discontinue, are easy tasks, nay, they are a delightful rest, and relieve the burden of heavier anxieties. There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away — sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come. I believe I speak but the strict truth when I claim that as there is none among earthly delights more noble than literature, so there is none so lasting, none gentler, or more faithful; there is none which accompanies its possessor through the vicissitudes of life at so small a cost of effort or anxiety.”
Petrarch (1304–1374) first seen 1373 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Giovanni Boccaccio (28 April 1373) as quoted in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 426