Petrarch Quotes on Virtue
Francesco Petrarch was an Italian scholar, poet, and one of the founders of Renaissance humanism. This page collects quotes attributed to Petrarch on the topic of virtue, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“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 -
“Five enemies of peace inhabit with us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride.”
De vita solitaria (1346) as quoted in Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 144 -
Attributed to Petrarch:
“Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceases to enlarge itself, till by broad spreading it disperses to nothing.”
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“Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.”
De remediis utriusque fortunae (1354), Book II