Quotes by Francesco Petrarca

"

We seem to envy, more than others, those who soar by their own power of wings and break free from the cage in which others remain confined.

"

Even if ten thousand years pass, virtue will never be sufficiently magnified, the exhortations to love God and to reject pleasure will never be enough, the path to the discovery of the new is never closed to profound minds.

"

It's interesting: who prefers to have a picture of a handsome enemy instead of a slut friend?

"

Since you can't have the look you want, at least be the way you should be on the inside.

"

Courage serves as a shield against the pressures of fate, and the fearful may be considered disarmed; the greater the fear, the greater the dangers; fate persecutes those who flee, crushes those who lie down, but those who stand upright it cannot trample...

"

Nature has fixed an inevitable end to life, so that one can always believe in the present and the near future.

"

Wisdom and strength almost always go their separate ways: the one grows when the other flourishes, the one awakens when the other withers; if things had been otherwise, human initiatives would have been more successful, the result of action more beneficent, but for now, alas, man usually begins to know only when he ceases to be able.

"

Seedlings change their sap; the forest shrub, after grafting and after changing the place, loses its old character and acquires a new one. Understand where I am knocking: I almost seem to myself one in the village and another in the city; because in the first situation I follow nature, and in the second, examples.

"

We know from remarkable, distinguished, experienced people that only a few are given to speak beautifully, but to all to live a beautiful life, and yet most people incline to the first, and to the second safe; this is the nature of human nature - to take what is difficult and to strive with all one's strength for that which is most difficult to obtain.

"

The ordinary bores, and the rarity fascinates.

"

He who has many vices has many masters.

"

Unhappy and uneducated people do almost everything in secret; for the happy there is no concealment and no silence.

"

I have often been convinced that a simple word has a beneficial effect on many people; not the person of the speaker, but his word sets the soul in motion, mysteriously manifesting its power.

"

I have understood that not only to men, but also to writings, a remarkable form is sometimes inauspicious to them, and that in all things we must tend to moderation.

"

I am for now one of the many, although I am persistently striving to become one of the few.

"

What good was it to know a lot if you weren't able to apply your knowledge when you needed it.

"

Honoring the strong is an insignificant merit, true greatness of soul is shown in giving help to the weak.

"

The more stinginess, the more cruelty.

"

Often the force of shame has given many what the force of spirit has failed to achieve, and often the spectators contribute more to the overcoming of inactivity than heroism.

"

Evil is often better known than good, and the fearful hurricane better known than clear weather.

"

It's amazing, but the creations of ugly people can be beautiful. We nowhere find that Phidias and Apelles are said to have been beautiful, but from one the remains of a brilliant work have been preserved, and the fame of the other has come down to us.

"

How much more meritorious, in our opinion, are the educators of the soul compared to those of the body, anyone who knows how to give both the right value and recognize the fact that the first give us an immortal gift, and the others, an uncertain and temporary one, understands.

"

Not to suffer from poverty and not to possess anything useless, not to command others and not to be subject - this is my goal.

"

I don't want a ruler to restrain me or constrain me: let the ruler see to his own, and let me leave my eyes alone, and my own opinion and freedom, not to prevent me either from going where I want, or to overlook something, nor to achieve the impossible, to be permitted to take the shortest way, and if I have patience, the straightest, to hasten or go slowly, to turn aside and turn back

"

You can't keep books locked up like in a prison; they must go from library to memory.

"

There is nothing so perfect that there is no more mistake.

"

Insufficiency gives value to things: if the earth were at every step covered with pearls, they would be trodden under foot like gravel; if the phoenix were like doves, the glory of this bird would perish; plant the balsam tree on all the mountain tops, and the balsam will become a plebeian liquor; all things, once increased in number and quantity, decrease in price. And, on the contrary, by reason of insufficiency, the most trifling things were of great value: thus, in the midst of the shifting sands of Libya, the drop of water from the hand of the Roman commander excited a general envy; during the siege of the city, a hideous animal - the rat - was highly prized; and this surpasses every form of shamelessness: often the scoundrels have prospered only because the able men were wanting; I won't give examples, because he hates to write miserable names, but do we really need examples?

"

Neither grammar nor any other of the seven liberal arts is worth a noble mind to grow old by occupying itself with: they are only a way, not an end in themselves.

"

The bearers of the pompous title of philosopher either search with haughty arrogance for the causes of things, disdaining the knowledge of what God is - creator of all things, or recommend virtue in his writings, and disregard it in their lives.

"

It derails us that we stubbornly cling to old views and find it difficult to let them go.

"

And the wonderful ones can be shamefully loved.

"

You can borrow mind from someone else, borrow brilliance, but let's beware of repeating someone's words: the first resemblance is not seen, the second comes to light; the first makes us poets, the second, monkeys.

"

Even if fate is friendly to someone, it only happens to trick him in its own way. She rises only to make the fall even more painful. So enjoying success is just one of the endless human wanderings.

"

If even the stomach of one and the same man does not always demand one and the same food, much less must the mind always feed on one and the same thing.

"

For man there is nothing more natural than work, man was born for it, as the bird is made for flight and the fish for swimming.

"

Every dying man is already old because, for everyone, the end of life is his old age; but few die mature, and none, after living long enough, except those who have convinced themselves that there is no difference between the shorter and the longer, both being subject to the same end.

"

Everything becomes more difficult, towards the end, the most fatal mistake is the last, and one fatal hour pronounces the sentence for all the years of life.

"

With what I was at first wasteful, then generous, I want to become considerate, stingy, stingy. Time teaches us, need haunts us, there is no room for jokes; believe me, they will crush and crush us in the midst of our labors, if we do not awake and resist: if we do not resist, with all the strength of our souls, we shall be destroyed.

"

In human affairs there is nothing perfect, and there is no mortal whom even the most timid critic does not find reason to vilify.

"

Perhaps I will somehow be allowed to remain alive, and when I leave the world, my writings will come to light and show that I was a student of the truth... And who knows if not myself, with my rebellious and fearless soul of ghosts, will I make way for those who have the strength to go forward?

"

It is best to write as bees collect honey: not leaving the flowers untouched, but taking them to the hive, where something unique, different and better emerges from the many and varied.

"

If man wants to get rid of his miserable condition and sincerely and ardently desires it, such a desire cannot be without success.

"

There is a law of envy: the envious torment themselves with their vices, becoming all the more unhappy, the happier our circumstances seem to them.

"

The chatter of the quarrelsome is usually related to anger.

"

A new day brings with it many novelties, no reversal of fortune is eternal, help often comes from where we least expect it, it is never too late to lose hope, salvation is often unexpected.

"

The care of my own soul is enough for me; oh, if I had such power!

"

Love knows admirably how to convince.

"

Physical presence harms glory.

"

Whoever is able to express how something burns him, he is only covered by a fire.

"

I once thought I could not bring it to an end without the presence of woman, and now I fear her worse than death, and though often the worst temptations trouble me, when I remember what woman is, how all temptations disappear on the spot I regain my freedom and peace.

"

Throughout my life I have convinced myself that most of the time, even in the most unnoticed form, is occupied by discussions with friends; friends are remarkable robbers of time.

"

Man's life on earth is not only military service but also battle.

"

I mourn my past years, when I only wanted the pleasures of mortal things, and although I had wings, I did not soar so as not to set a poor example for the age. Who do you see, my sins have crushed me, Lord of Heaven, help my invisible, immortal, lost soul in trouble, and mercifully replace the disorder in me.

"

Blessed is the sun, the snow, the year, and that season, hour, minute of the year, and also the beautiful country, in which I became addicted to the magical gaze of two beautiful eyes.

"

If not love, then what do I feel? And if this is love, what kind? If it's good, why is it so deadly? If it's bad, why is this torment so sweet?

"

By myself, slowly, thinking, I walk the desolate, desolate, silent landscape, and my eyes are careful not to go where there are human footprints in the sand.

"

If I laugh or sing on my lips, I do, because it is the only refuge to hide the voice of suffering.

"

Gentlemen, see how life is flying by, our time is slipping away, the clock is ticking, and the claws of death are already on our necks on the curve.

"

Life runs away, it never turns back, and Death comes with great strides behind it.

"

I have no peace and I do not curse war, I fear and hope, I am cold and burned, I ascend to the sky and rest in the depths, I need nothing and would embrace the world.

"

I am happy because only you can open the lock on my heart, with both keys in your hands, and if necessary, I will sail on in any wind, because whatever you give, everything is precious to me.