For style beyond the genius never dares.
PETRARCHFor style beyond the genius never dares.
PETRARCHThe greater I am, the greater shall be my efforts.
PETRARCHFor virtue only finds eternal Fame.
PETRARCHI 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.
PETRARCHI 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.
PETRARCHI would have preferred to have been born in any other time than our own.
PETRARCHWhat 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.
PETRARCHEvents 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.
PETRARCHLife in itself is short enough, but the physicians with their art, know to their amusement, how to make it still shorter.
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.
PETRARCHA good death does honour to a whole life.
PETRARCHI saw the tracks of angels in the earth: the beauty of heaven walking by itself on the world.
PETRARCHSameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
PETRARCHSameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
PETRARCHHitherto your eyes have been darkened and you have looked too much, yes, far too much, upon the things of earth. If these so much delight you what shall be your rapture when you lift your gaze to things eternal!
PETRARCHTo 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