Petrarch

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.

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Who naught suspects is easily deceived.

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Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.

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And tears are heard within the harp I touch.

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It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.

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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.

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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?

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Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.

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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.

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Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure.

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Man has not a greater enemy than himself.

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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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Often on earth the gentlest heart is fain To feed and banquet on another's woe.

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How fortune brings to earth the oversure!

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

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

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Hope is incredible to the slave of grief.

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Nothing mortal is enduring, and there is nothing sweet which does not presently end in bitterness.

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Life hurries on, a frantic refugee, And Death, with great forced marches, follows fast; And all the present leagues with all the past And all the future to make war on me.

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How quick the old woe follows a little bliss!

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Quotes by Petrarch