Petrarch Quotes

I am she who gave you so much war and completed my day before evening.

I' so' colei che ti die' tanta guerra,
et compie' mia giornata inanzi sera.

It is better to will the good than to know the truth.

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.

Intendami chi pò, ch'i' m'intend'io.

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.

I am speaking to tell the truth, not from hatred or scorn of anyone.

Death is a sleep that ends our dreaming. Oh, that we may be allowed to wake before death wakes us.

Learning is my sole delight.

You, therefore, if you seek ever to have quiet minds before the last day, follow the few and not the crowd.

"And, to tell finally my greatest service,
I've kept him from a thousand vicious acts,
for low and vile things could never serve to give him satisfaction
(a young many shy and modest in his acts
and thoughts) once he'd become her slave and vassal;
she made so deep a mark
upon his heart, that he must emulate her...

"Again, and this is what I'll finish with,
I gave him wings to fly beyond the skies
by means of mortal things,
which make a ladder to our Maker, rightly used...

. . . The senses reign, and reason now is dead;
from one pleasing desire comes another.
Virtue, honor, beauty, gracious bearing,
sweet words have caught me in her lovely branches
in which my heart is tenderly entangled.
In thirteen twenty-seven, and precisely
at the first hour of the sixth of April
I entered the labyrinth, and I see no way out.

Vol schaamte dat ik niet genoeg liet horen
over uw schoonheid, vrouwe, denk ik weer
hoe zij mij zozeer trof, die eerste keer,
dat mij geen ander ooit nog zal bekoren.

Maar u te loven is mij niet beschoren:
te ontoereikend blijkt mijn ganzenveer.
Mijn hersens lijken, als ik het probeer,
verlamd te zijn en in ontzag bevroren.

Vaak ving ik aan te zingen, maar moest zwijgen
omdat mijn krachten mij begaven, want
welk stemgeluid kan tot uw hoogte stijgen?

Vaak wilde ik een lofdicht op u maken,
maar schroom heeft steeds mijn pen, mijn hoofd, mijn hand
gedwongen om die pogingen te staken.

(Ike Cialona)

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

Altro diletto che imparar, non provo.