Petrarch quotes

To be able to say how much you love is to love but little. (Petrarch)
Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
Petrarch
Man has no greater enemy than himself.
Petrarch
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
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
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
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
How fortune brings to earth the over-sure!
Petrarch
A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.
Petrarch
Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
Petrarch
The aged love what is practical while impetuous youth longs only for what is dazzling. (Petrarch)
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?
Petrarch
Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.
Petrarch
It is better to will the good than to know the truth.
Petrarch
Who overrefines his argument brings himself to grief.
Petrarch
Continued work and application form my soul's nourishment. So soon as I commenced to rest and relax I should cease to live.
Petrarch
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.
Petrarch
How do you know, poor fool? Perhaps out there, somewhere, someone is sighing for your absence'; and with this thought, my soul begins to breathe.
Petrarch
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.
Petrarch
Books have led some to learning and others to madness.
Petrarch
And tears are heard within the harp I touch. (Petrarch)
There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.
Petrarch
Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure.
Petrarch
How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.
Petrarch
Who naught suspects is easily deceived.
Petrarch