Quotes by Petrarca Petrarch

Believe me, many things are attributed to gravity and wisdom which are really due to incapacity and sloth. Men often despise what they despair of obtaining. It is in the very nature of ignorance to scorn what it cannot understand, and to desire to keep others from attaining what it cannot reach. Hence the false judgments upon matters of which we know nothing, by which we evince our envy quite as clearly as our stupidity.

-Francesco di Petracco

True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.

To be able to say how much you love is to love but little.

Who naught suspects is easily deceived.

Five great enemies to peace inhabit with us: viz., avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.

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.

Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.

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

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

You keep to your own ways and leave mine to me. -Vos vestros servate, meos mihi linquite mores