quote · Legacy record
Petrarch observes, that we change language, habits, laws, customs, manners, but not vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and madness—they are still the same. And as a river, we see, keeps the like name and place, but not water, and yet ever runs, our times and persons alter, vices are the same, and ever be. Look how nightingales sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated, sparrows chirped, dogs barked, so they do still: we keep our madness still, play the fool still; we are of the same humours and inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike, much as one, we and our sons, and so shall our posterity continue to the last.
Petrarch observes, that we change language, habits, laws, customs, manners, but not vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and madness—they are still the same. And as a river, we see, keeps the like name and place, but not water, and yet ever runs, our times and persons alter, vices are the same, and ever be. Look how nightingales sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated, sparrows chirped, dogs barked, so they do still: we keep our madness still, play the fool still; we are of the same humours and inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike, much as one, we and our sons, and so shall our posterity continue to the last.
In print by 1893 AD · industrial
Recorded in a printed collection by this date; the original date of these words is still unknown.
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- Author or tradition
- Unresolved attribution · printed label: Burton
Attribution: unknown - Country attributed
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- In print by 1893 AD · industrial
In print by 1893: recorded in Book of Wise Sayings (1893). Collection publication is an upper bound for this wording, not its earliest origin, composition date or the author's lifetime.
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- Book of Wise Sayings (1893) (1893 AD)
Saying 539 · printed source label: Burton · entry translator not specified
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