And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not.
PETRARCHWhere you are is of no moment, but only what you are doing there. It is not the place that ennobles you, but you the place, and this only by doing that which is great and noble.
More Petrarch Quotes
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While life is in your body, you have the rein of all thoughts in your hands.
PETRARCH -
Nothing mortal is enduring, and there is nothing sweet which does not presently end in bitterness.
PETRARCH -
How fortune brings to earth the over-sure!
PETRARCH -
Ruthless striving, overcomes everything.
PETRARCH -
Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure.
PETRARCH -
I know and love the good, yet, ah! the worst pursue.
PETRARCH -
Perhaps out there, somewhere, someone is sighing for your absence; and with this thought, my soul begins to breathe.
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 -
And I live on, but in grief and self-contempt, Left here without the light I loved so much, In a great tempest and with shrouds unkempt.
PETRARCH -
To be able to say how much love, is love but little.
PETRARCH -
Hope is incredible to the slave of grief.
PETRARCH -
How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.
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 -
The end of doubt is the beginning of repose.
PETRARCH -
It may be only glory that we seek here, but I persuade myself that, as long as we remain here, that is right. Another glory awaits us in heaven and he who reaches there will not wish even to think of earthly fame.
PETRARCH