"How quick the old woe follows a little bliss!"
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Quote collection
Petrarch quotes (page 4 of 5)
84 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Reality is always the foe of famous names."
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"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."
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"I know and love the good, yet, ah! the worst pursue."
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"I have taken pride in others, never in myself."
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"Life in itself is short enough, but the physicians with their art, know to their amusement, how to make it still shorter."
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"The end of doubt is the beginning of repose."
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"I rejoiced in my progress, mourned my weaknesses, and commiserated the universal instability of human conduct."
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"Books never pall on me. They discourse with us, they take counsel with us, and are united to us by a certain living chatty familiarity. And not only does each book inspire the sense that it belongs to its readers, but it also suggests the name of others, and one begets the desire of the other."
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"I had got this far, and was thinking of what to say next, and as my habit is, I was pricking the paper idly with my pen. And I thought how, between one dip of the pen and the next, time goes on, and I hurry, drive myself, and speed toward death. We are always dying. I while I write, you while you read, and others while they listen or stop their ears, they are all dying."
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"Where are the numerous constructions erected by Agrippa, of which only the Pantheon remains? Where are the splendorous palaces of the emperors?"
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"Alack our life, so beautiful to see, With how much ease life losest, in a day, What many years with pain and toil amassed!"
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"Wanting is not enough, long and you attain it."
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"He loves but lightly who his love can tell."
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"In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair - my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did."
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"There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen. Other pleasures fail us or wound us while they charm, but the pen we take up rejoicing and lay down with satisfaction, for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master, but many others as well, even though they be far away - sometimes, indeed, though they be not born for thousands of years to come."
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"Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown."
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"Go, grieving rimes of mine, to that hard stone Whereunder lies my darling, lies my dear, And cry to her to speak from heaven's sphere."
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"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."
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"When the poet died his cat was put to death and mummified."
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