10 Quotes & Sayings By Petrarch

Petrarch was born in Arezzo, Italy, in 1304. He studied law at Bologna University and became a friend of the noted Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini. Petrarch wrote poetry and prose, including a famous biography of St. Francis of Assisi, which established his reputation as a Franciscan scholar Read more

In 1327 he received a degree from the University of Naples, and from 1329 to 1337, he taught civil law at the University of Bologna. In 1348 he resigned his professorship because of ill health and went to Avignon, France, where he died in 1374 at the age of 66.

1
Virtue is health vice is sickness. Petrarch
2
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. Petrarch
3
Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good. Petrarch
4
To be able to say how much love, is love but little. Petrarch
5
Books have led some to learning and others to madness. Petrarch
6
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
7
Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together. Petrarch
8
Suspicion is the cancer of friendship. Petrarch
9
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. Petrarch