Francesco Petrarca

great beauty virtue dwell

“Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.”

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

rich subtract desire

“A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.”

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

bookslearning madness

“Books have led some to learning and others to madness.”

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

ate morning digest evening boy ruminate old writings marrow

“I ate in the morning what I would digest in the evening; I swallowed as a boy what I would ruminate upon as an older man. I have thoroughly absorbed these writings, implanting them not only in my memory but in my marrow."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

time delight prison bind human memory goal mortality

“Time is our delight and our prison. It binds all human beings together, since we all share the pleasures and burdens of memory, and we all know the anticipation of cherished goals and the dark prospect of personal mortality.”

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

man learning heretic madman agressively perverse

“No one is a man of learning unless he is also a heretic and a madman, and above all, aggressively perverse.”

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

learning sole delight

“Learning is my sole delight.”

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

keep own ways leave mine

"You keep to your own ways and leave mine to me."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

five enemy peace avarice ambition envy anger pride banish

"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."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

man enemy himself

"Man has not a greater enemy than himself."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

events sad pleasant painful believe judgement

"Events appear sad, pleasant, or painful, not because they are so in reality, but because we believe them to be so and the light in which we look at them depends upon our own judgment."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

prefer born another time

"I would have preferred to have been born in any other time than our own."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

work activity soul nourishment rest relax cease live

"Continued work and application form my soul's nourishment. So soon as I commenced to rest and relax I should cease to live."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

sameness disgust variety cure

"Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

aged old love practical young dazzling

The aged love what is practical while impetuous youth longs only for what is dazzling.

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)

change summer winter freeze eternal now time

"The time will come when every change shall cease,

This quick revolving wheel shall rest in peace:

No summer then shall glow, not winter freeze;

Nothing shall be to come, and nothing past,

But an eternal now shall ever last."

― Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)