Francesco Quotes & Sayings

To relinquish a present good through apprehension of a future evil is in most instances unwise ... from a fear which may afterwards turn out groundless, you lost the good that lay within your grasp. — Francesco Guicciardini

I had got this far, and was thinking of what to say next, and as my habit is, I was pricking the paper idly with my pen. And I thought how, between one dip of the pen and the next, time goes on, and I hurry, drive myself, and speed toward death. We are always dying. I while I write, you while you read, and others while they listen or stop their ears, they are all dying. — Francesco Petrarca

I'm also very impressed with the best people in experimental electronic world, like Peta and Eckart Aillers and Finez and Jim O'Rourke and Oren Umbarci and Francesco Lopez. Most of them use the computer as their main instrument. — John Frusciante

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident. — Francesco Guicciardini

On the edge of a laughing teacup
Did Kubla Kat decree
The the corn fritter festooned with medals
Shall make the brownies free
And so the walls turned to water
To let our sorrows drown
As the chairs burned themselves for warmth
So they need not face the clown
Then the spoons burst into song
And all the forks they understood
As I stared at my talking claws
Becasue this catnip is just that good — Francesco Marciuliano

That moment when the person actually dictates the way I do the portrait is when the intimacy arrives. — Francesco Clemente

My portraits are half what I see and the other half is invented or dictated by the person and the painting. — Francesco Clemente

I'm more interested in photographing people who have done something, like writers or directors - even billionaires - as long as I can study them before I photograph them. — Francesco Carrozzini

If I were a magician who could make things possible, I'd have lemonade always tasting as it did on the evening Francesco explained how right it was for the Italian moon to be a feminine moon. If I were a magician who could make things possible, we'd be able to understand all languages every evening between eight and nine. If I were a magician who could make things possible, all dams would keep their promises. If I were a magician who could make things possible, we'd be really brave. — Sasa Stanisic

They say there are
Twenty-four hours in a day
But I'm only up for three of them
And two I consider overtime — Francesco Marciuliano

Blessed be the eyes that saw her while she lived!" 310 — Francesco Petrarca

Now we were united, strong, friends, and something more. — Francesco D'Adamo

There's poetry in the world. Poetry doesn't belong just to the poets. You know, you can look at the most premeditated, cold blooded movie and find poetry in it. — Francesco Clemente

I am intelligent
I am attractive
I am powerful
I am proactive
I am health
I am strength
I am stealth
I am surrounded by love
I am a beacon of hope
I-- HORKFLAKGLORKSPUKE
....
That was a hairball
And I am a cat
And what just happened
I am fine with that — Francesco Marciuliano

How do you know, poor fool? Perhaps out there, somewhere, someone is sighing for your absence'; and with this thought, my soul begins to breathe. — Francesco Petrarca

Neither exhortations to virtue nor the argument of approaching death should divert us from literature; for in a good mind it excites the love of virtue, and dissipates, or at least diminishes, the fear of death. — Francesco Petrarca

No one is a man of learning unless he is also a heretic and a madman, and above all , aggressively perverse. — Francesco Petrarca

Happiness does not come automatically. It is not a gift that good fortune bestows upon us and a reversal of fortune takes back. It depends on us alone. One does not become happy overnight, but with patient labor, day after day. Happiness is constructed, and that requires effort and time. In order to become happy, we have to learn how to change ourselves. LUCA AND FRANCESCO CAVALLI-SFORZA — Matthieu Ricard

Shame is the fruit of my vanities, and remorse, and the clearest knowledge of how the world's delight is a brief dream. — Francesco Petrarca

Yet have I oft been beaten in the field, And sometimes hurt," said I, "but scorn'd to yield." He smiled and said: "Alas! thou dost not see, My son, how great a flame's prepared for thee. — Francesco Petrarca

Love discovered me all weaponless,
and opened the way to the heart through the eyes,
which are made the passageways and doors of tears:
so that it seems to me it does him little honour
to wound me with his arrow, in that state,
he not showing his bow at all to you who are armed — Francesco Petrarca

When you sit for an hour and a half in front of somebody, he or she shows about twenty faces. And so it's this crazy chase of, Which face? Which one is the one? — Francesco Clemente

In India and in New York the economy is naked. People are starving physically in India, and emotionally in New York. — Francesco Clemente

If you want to compete in Italy, the only accepted ways are brute force, or cunning. Like Machiavelli says, "Fronte otra forze." And neither of these two "virtues" is suited to an artist. The artist has to stay intelligent. — Francesco Clemente

I have friends whose society is delightful to me; they are persons of all countries and of all ages; distinguished in war, in council, and in letters; easy to live with, always at my command. — Francesco Petrarca

Gold, silver, jewels, purple garments, houses built of marble, groomed estates, pious paintings, caparisoned steeds, and other things of this kind offer a mutable and superficial pleasure; books give delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy. — Francesco Petrarca

We are not naturally intelligent, or happy. In fact, every day it is harder to remain intelligent. It seems often that people get intelligent through pain, but you can't be sure because nobody really can say, "I've been suffering." — Francesco Clemente

walk forwards in the radiance of the past — Francesco Petrarca

It did not seem to me to be a time to guard myself
against Love's blows: so I went on
confident, unsuspecting; from that, my troubles
started, amongst the public sorrows — Francesco Petrarca

Steven Gerrard would be the captain of my World XI dream team. — Francesco Totti

I wish to go beyond the fire that burns me. — Francesco Petrarca

Libri quosdam ad scientiam, quosdam ad insaniam deduxere. (Books have led some to knowledge and some to madness.) — Francesco Petrarca

What I'd like to pass on to my children is the thirst for knowledge. It's something I experience every day that I learned from my father. He always taught me that no matter how long you've done something, you can always learn something new and be better at what you do. — Francesco Quinn

I freeze and burn, love is bitter and sweet, my sighs are tempests and my tears are floods, I am in ecstasy and agony, I am possessed by memories of her and I am in exile from myself. — Francesco Petrarca

He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short. — Francesco Guicciardini

The senses reign, and reason now is dead;
from one pleasing desire comes another.
Virtue, honor, beauty, gracious bearing,
sweet words have caught me in her lovely branches
in which my heart is tenderly entangled.
In thirteen twenty-seven, and precisely
at the first hour of the sixth of April
I entered the labyrinth, and I see no way out. — Francesco Petrarca

Pay no heed to those who tell you that they have relinquished place and power of their own accord, and from their love of quiet. For almost always they have been brought to this retirement by their insufficiency and against their will. — Francesco Guicciardini

If you attempt certain things at the right time, they are easy to accomplish - in fact, they almost get done by themselves. If you undertake them before the time is right, not only will they fail, but they will often become impossible to accomplish even when the time would have been right. — Francesco Guicciardini

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance
to make them. — Francesco Guicciardini

The affairs of this world are so shifting and depend on so many accidents, that it is hard to form any judgment concerning the future; nay, we see from experience that the forecasts even of the wise almost always turn out false. — Francesco Guicciardini

Go mortals, sweat, pant, toil, range the lands and seas to pile up riches you cannot keep; glory that will not last. The life we lead is a sleep; whatever we do, dreams. Only death breaks the sleep and wakes us from dreaming. I wish I could have woken before this. — Francesco Petrarca

You can't hold someone who
Wants to leave
You can't clutch a memory
As if it were today
You can't take an insult
Close to heart
You can't grasp for glory
From your chair
You can't seize life
Thinking only of loss
And you can't grab a laser pointer dot
On the wall
No matter how much you try
These hard-earned truths I give to you — Francesco Marciuliano

Vede insieme l'uno e l'altro polo,
Le stelle vaghe e lor viaggio torto;
E vedi, 'I veder nostro quanto e corto.
(You see both poles at once, the travelling stars in their winding courses, and you see just how limited our seeing really is.) — Francesco Petrarca

And men go about to wonder at the heights of the mountains, and the mighty waves of the sea, and the wide sweep of rivers, and the circuit of the ocean, and the revolution of the stars, but themselves they consider not. — Francesco Petrarca

Be more guided by hope than fear. — Francesco Guicciardini

And what good has all your reading done you? Out of all the things you have read, how much has really stayed in your soul, what roots have grown there that will, in a good time, bring forth fruit? Examine your heart carefully. If you compare the whole of what you know with what you don't know, you will find that your knowledge is like a small stream dried up in the summer heat compared to the ocean of your ignorance. And even granted that you do know a lot, what difference does it make? — Francesco Petrarca

I first think of intelligence. You need it for surviving in Italy because Italy is so pompous. — Francesco Clemente

There is no evil in human affairs that has not some good mingled with it.
[It., Non e male alcuno nelle cose umane che non abbia congiunto seco qualche bene.] — Francesco Guicciardini

We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose. — Francesco Guicciardini

She closed her eyes; and in the sweet slumber lying
her spirit tiptoed from its lodging place.
It's folly to shrink in fear, if this is dying;
for death looked lovely in her face. — Francesco Petrarca

It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources. — Francesco Guicciardini

I'm at the age where I don't need an acid trip to feel naked ... to feel that I don't exist. Now a self-portrait is almost a reminder to me that I do exist. — Francesco Clemente

I always saw photography as a way to get to film. — Francesco Carrozzini

One day instead the old woman said kind words to her and gave her an awning on a stick to keep rain off (there has been much rain in purgatorium) — Ali Smith

I am possessed by one insatiable passion , which I cannot restrain nor would I if I could ... I cannot get enough books . — Francesco Petrarca

Loving friendship is able to endure everything; it refuses no burden. — Francesco Petrarca

And dilettantism is a humorous way to survive. Everybody understands you for it and everybody hates you for it. And not everybody chooses to be a dilettante. Many choose cunning and brute force. — Francesco Clemente

In my head I am in one of those Buddhist caves where you see a thousand Buddha faces on the wall. In my head I am on my seventeen-year-old acid trip, when I saw my personas fall one minute after another, as if I was dying every moment. — Francesco Clemente

Conspiracies, since they cannot be engaged in without the fellowship of others, are for that reason most perilous; for as most men are either fools or knaves, we run excessive risk in making such folk our companions. — Francesco Guicciardini

He is less likely to be mistaken who looks forward to a change in the affairs of the world than he who regards them as firm and stable. — Francesco Guicciardini

The success of very important matters often depends on doing or not doing something that seems trivial. Even in little things, therefore, you must be cautious and thoughtful. Francesco Guicciardini — Bohdi Sanders

How much luckier than all the rest of mankind are the astrologers who, if they tell one truth among a hundred lies, obtain so much credit that even their lies are believed. — Francesco Guicciardini

Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together. — Francesco Petrarca

Books have led some to learning and others to madness. — Francesco Petrarca

To have displeased evil and ignorant men is the sure sign of genius and virtue... — Francesco Petrarca

Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states. — Francesco Guicciardini

When money and hype recede from the art world, one thing I won't miss will be what curator Francesco Bonami calls the 'Eventocracy.' All this flashy 'art-fair art' and those highly produced space-eating spectacles and installations wow you for a minute until you move on to the next adrenaline event. — Jerry Saltz

Even though many people prove to be ungrateful, do not let that stop you from benefiting others-for not only is beneficence in itself a noble and almost divine quality, it may also happen that while you practice it, you will encounter someone so grateful that he will make up for all the others' ingratitude. — Francesco Guicciardini

It's 8a.m. and time to rest
It's 10a.m. and time to relax
It's noon and time for repose
It's 3p.m. and time for shut-eye
It's 6p.m. and time for siesta
It's 9p.m. and time to slumber
It's midnight and time to snooze
It's 4a.m. and time to hang upside down from your bedroom ceiling, screaming. — Francesco Marciuliano

Books are the true means of acquiring talent. If one does not read one remains ignorant, and ignorance can never produce true painters. — Francesco Albani

I stop, then, in my tracks, to recollect the awesome presence that I've left behind, the road ahead so long, my life so short, and bow my head and burst out into tears. While — Francesco Petrarca

LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME I-
Oh, uh, hello
I did not expect an answer
I did not expect an entrance
I did not expect this room to be so unbelievably dull
So, uh, goodbye — Francesco Marciuliano

To the aircraft I aim, not the man. — Francesco Baracca

Fashion is the pursuit of perfection, Style is the acceptance of one's flaws. — Francesco Clemente

To me the poets are closer than I am to the idea of voice, to a sort of primeval song that we all participate in. — Francesco Clemente

Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience. — Francesco Guicciardini

I could be winning the decathlon in high school, which I've won twice, yet, if my dad is in the audience, 'Oh look! It's Anthony Quinn.' And I'm like, 'Hello? Kid just got a gold medal. Hello? I'm over here.' — Francesco Quinn

And what is the use of knowing many things if, when you have learned the dimensions of heaven and earth, the measure of the seas, the courses of stars, the virtues of plants and stones, the secrets of nature, you still don't know yourself? — Francesco Petrarca

Keep your eye fixed not so much on what they [people] ought in reason to do, as on what they are likely to do based on their disposition and habits. — Francesco Guicciardini

Affairs that depend on many rarely succeed. — Francesco Guicciardini

Learning is my sole delight. — Francesco Petrarca

To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man's heart. — Francesco Guicciardini

The leaf twirls gently
To the dry ground
The flake tumbles lightly
To the snow mound
The lightning falls mightily
To the earth with a crash
And I plummet sleepily
From the fridge to the trash.
Such is nature's way — Francesco Marciuliano

Death is a sleep that ends our dreaming. Oh, that we may be allowed to wake before death wakes us. — Francesco Petrarca

Because I grew up playing for Roma and I want to die playing for Roma, because I have always been a Roma's fan! — Francesco Totti

In our corrupt times, the virtue of a Pontiff is commended when he does not surpass the wickedness of other men. - Francesco Guicciardini, History of Italy, 1561 — Christopher Buckley

Winning one league title at Roma to me is worth winning 10 at Juventus or Real Madrid. — Francesco Totti

To be able to say how much love, is love but little. — Francesco Petrarca

There is nothing so fleeting as the memory of benefits received. — Francesco Guicciardini

All the intelligence services of America and Europe know full well that the disastrous attack ( of 9/11 ) has been planned and realized from the Mossad.. with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic countries and in order to induce the Western Powers to take part in Iraq and Afghanistan. — Francesco Cossiga

Laura, illustrious through her own virtues, and long famed through my verses, first appeared to my eyes in my youth, in the year of our Lord 1327, on the sixth day of April, in the church of St. Clare in Avignon, at matins; and in the same city, also on the sixth day of April, at the same first hour, but in the year 1348, the light of her life was withdrawn from the light of day, while I, as it chanced, was in Verona, unaware of my fate ... — Francesco Petrarca

Best not to ask "What is it?" until you finish rolling in it. — Francesco Marciuliano

I thought to myself with what means, with what deceptions, with how many varied arts, with what industry a man sharpens his wits to deceive another and through these variations the world is made more beautiful. — Francesco Vettori

I learned from an early age that my heritage, my love for people, and my desire to be a vehicle that can be used through my voice, that my expressions and actions can transport a person to experience a scene from the past, present and future. — Francesco Quinn

I never paint a portrait from a photograph, because a photograph doesn't give enough information about what the person feels. — Francesco Clemente

New Rule: Someone has to tell Francesco Schettino that embracing a callous policy of "every man for himself" doesn't make you a sea captain. It makes you the Republican nominee. — Bill Maher

A photograph to me is always a reminder of how the person was on a certain day in that certain light fixed. When I look at a watercolor of that same person, it seems to me alive, more open than a photograph. — Francesco Clemente

Now, what I am, and what I was, I know; I see the seasons in procession go With still increasing speed; while things to come, Unknown, unthought, amid the growing gloom Of long futurity, perplex my soul, While life is posting to its final goal. Mine is the crime, who ought with clearer light To watch the winged years' incessant flight; And not to slumber on in dull delay — Francesco Petrarca

To me, the main and most exciting thing about photography is to meet people. The picture is the result of what happened between me and them on the set. — Francesco Carrozzini

Ambition is not in itself an evil; nor is he to be condemned whose spirit prompts him to seek fame by worthy and honourable ways. — Francesco Guicciardini