Petrarch Quotes

I have friends whose society is delightful to me; they are persons of all countries and of all ages; distinguished in war, in council, and in letters; easy to live with, always at my command.

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.

And what is the use of knowing many things if, when you have learned the dimensions of heaven and earth, the measure of the seas, the courses of stars, the virtues of plants and stones, the secrets of nature, you still don’t know yourself?

Sleep is truly, as they say, akin to death, and relieves the heart of the sweet care that keeps it in life.

Gold,silver,gems, fine raiment , a marble palace, well-cultivated fields, paintings, a splendidly caparisoned horse such things as these give one nothing more than a mute and superficial pleasure. Books delight us through and through, they converse with us, they give us good advice; they become living and lively companions to us .

Shame is the fruit of my vanities, and remorse, and the clearest knowledge of how the world's delight is a brief dream.

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.

Per bene star si scende molte miglia.

...vicdanın gözlerinden yaş getirdi, ama asla gerektiği şekilde seni değiştirmeye yetmedi.

Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.

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

For who can doubt that Rome would rise again instantly if she began to know herself?

Among various joys, the fruit of labor is the sweetest.

Proverbio "ama chi t'ama" è fatto antico.

I feed my heart with sighs, that's all it asks,
I live on tears, I think I'm born to weep;
I don't complain of that, since in my state
weeping is sweeter than you might believe.