Francesco Petrarca: Good

Francesco Petrarca was Italian scholar and poet. Explore interesting quotes on good.
Francesco Petrarca: 146   quotes 7   likes

“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.”

Epistola ad Posteros [Letter to Posterity] in Petrarch : The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters (1898) edited by James Harvey Robinson and Henry Winchester Rolfe, p. 59

“If it is not love, what then is it that I feel? But if it is love, before God, what kind of thing is it? If it is good, whence comes this bitter mortal effect? If it is evil, why is each torment so sweet?”

S'amor non è, che dunque è quel ch'io sento?
Ma s'egli è amor, perdio, che cosa et quale?
Se bona, onde l'effecto aspro mortale?
Se ria, onde sí dolce ogni tormento?
Canzone 132, st. 1
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life

“It is better to will the good than to know the truth.”

As quoted in The Renaissance : Essays in Interpretation (1982) by André Chastel , p 107

“Hannibal was victorious, but he did not know later how to make good use of his victorious fortune.”

Vinse Hanibàl, et non seppe usar poi
ben la vittoriosa sua ventura.
Canzone 103, lines 1–2
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life

“A good death does honor to a whole life.”

Un bel morir tutta la vita honora.
Canzone 207 (c. 1348), st. 5
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life