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Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown.

Petrarch

What name to call thee by, O virgin fair, I know not, for thy looks are not of earth And more than mortal seems thy countenances.
PETRARCH

Earth Known Moral Myself Name
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

Greatness Grief Light Live Love Myself
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.
PETRARCH

Height Man Mountain Revolution Stars Wonder
Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
PETRARCH

Greatness Togetherness
Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.
PETRARCH

Cancer Friendship One Liner Suspicious
I rejoiced in my progress, mourned my weaknesses, and commiserated the universal instability of human conduct.
PETRARCH

Human Mourn Progress Weakness
Great errors seldom originate but with men of great minds.
PETRARCH

Error Men Mind
Books can warm the heart with friendly words and counsel, entering into a close relationship with us which is articulate and alive.
PETRARCH

Alive Book Friendship Heart Relationship Warm
And tears are heard within the harp I touch.
PETRARCH

Music Myself Tears Touch
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.
PETRARCH

Command Country Delight Easy Friendship Live Myself Society
The end of doubt is the beginning of repose.
PETRARCH

Beginning Doubt End One Liner
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

Beginning Bound Difference Influence Man Myself
I saw the tracks of angels in the earth: the beauty of heaven walking by itself on the world.
PETRARCH

Angel Beautiful Earth Walk World
I know and love the good, yet, ah! the worst pursue.
PETRARCH

Goodness Known Love Pursue Worst
Reality is always the foe of famous names.
PETRARCH

Enemy Famous Name One Liner Reality
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.
PETRARCH

Appearance Judgement Ourselves Pain Reality Sadness
Often on earth the gentlest heart is fain To feed and banquet on another’s woe.
PETRARCH

Earth Enemy Heart
He loves but lightly who his love can tell.
PETRARCH

Himself Light Love
Do you suppose there is any living man so unreasonable that if he found himself stricken with a dangerous ailment he would not anxiously desire to regain the blessing of health?
PETRARCH

Blessing Dangerous Health Live Man Reason Yourself
Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
PETRARCH

Cure Disgust Mother
It is better to will the good than to know the truth.
PETRARCH

Better Goodness Known Willing
I freeze and burn, love is bitter and sweet, my sighs are tempests and my tears are floods, I am in ecstasy and agony, I am possessed by memories of her and I am in exile from myself.
PETRARCH

Bitter Burn Freeze Memories Myself Sweet
I would have preferred to have been born in any other time than our own.
PETRARCH

Born Ourselves Preference Time
Where are the numerous constructions erected by Agrippa, of which only the Pantheon remains? Where are the splendorous palaces of the emperors?
PETRARCH

Construction Emperor Palace
Man has no greater enemy than himself. I have acted contrary to my sentiments and inclination; throughout our whole lives we do what we never intended, and what we proposed to do, we leave undone.
PETRARCH

Enemy Greatness Man Propose
Who naught suspects is easily deceived.
PETRARCH

Easy One Liner Suspect
There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.
PETRARCH

Agreement Burden Light Pen Poet

Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown.

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Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown.

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