Francesco Petrarca

I wept, and my tears were my consolation.

Time, which devours all things, has devoured my joys.

The Muses are silent when love speaks.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things.

I am a citizen of the world, but my heart is in Avignon.

Poetry is the food of love.

The soul is immortal, the body perishes.

In solitude, one finds oneself.

My pen is my sword.

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise.

The eyes are the windows of the soul.

I have climbed the highest mountain, but found no peace.

Letters are the breath of the soul.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

The past is a dream, the future a vision.

Study is the light of the mind.

Love binds the heart.

In the silence of the night, thoughts speak loudest.

The scholar's life is a life of contemplation.

Fortune is fickle, virtue eternal.