With Death at my side I seek new counsel for my life, and I see the better but I lay hold on the worse.

Co la morte a lato
cerco del viver mio novo consiglio,
et veggio 'l meglio, et al peggior m'appiglio.

Original text (Italian)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Compare | Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor. | I see, approving, Things that are good, and yet I follow worse ones. | Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book VII, lines 20–21 (trans. R. Humphries)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Petrarch (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.