Dante Alighieri Quotes & Sayings

Put off this sloth,' the master said, 'for shame!
Sitting on feather-pillows, lying reclined
Beneath the blanket is no way to fame -
Fame, without which man's life wastes out of mind,
Leaving on earth no more memorial
Than foam in water or smoke upon the wind — Dante Alighieri

O Virgins, sacrosanct, if I have ever, for your sake, suffered vigils,cold,, and hunger, great need makes me entreat my recompense. — Dante Alighieri

My son, you've seen the temporary fire
and the eternal fire; you have reached
the place past which my powers cannot see.
I've brought you here through intellect and art;
from now on, let your pleasure be your guide;
you're past the steep and past the narrow paths.
Look at the sun that shines upon your brow;
look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs
born here, spontaneously, of the earth.
Among them, you can rest or walk until
the coming of the glad and lovely eyes
those eyes that weeping, sent me to your side.
Await no further word or sign from me:
your will is free, erect, and whole
to act
against that will would be to err: therefore
I crown and miter you over yourself — Dante Alighieri

So may heaven's grace clear away the foam from the conscience, that the river of thy thoughts may roll limpid thenceforth. — Dante Alighieri

The day that man allows true love to appear, those things which are well made will fall into cofusion and will overturn everything we believe to be right and true. — Dante Alighieri

He who knows most grieves most for wasted time. — Dante Alighieri

For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble. — Dante Alighieri

It is no learning to understand what you do not retain. — Dante Alighieri

There is no greater sorrow
Than to recall a happy time
When miserable. — Dante Alighieri

O how far remov'd, Predestination! is thy foot from such As see not the First Cause entire: and ye, O mortal men! be wary how ye judge: For we, who see the Maker, know not yet The number of the chosen; and esteem Such scantiness of knowledge our delight: For all good is, in that primal good, Concentrate; and God's will and ours are one. — Dante Alighieri

Lady, you who are so great, so powerful,
that who seeks grace without recourse to you
would have his wish fly upward without wings. — Dante Alighieri

He who shall never be divided from me kissed my mouth all trembling. — Dante Alighieri

Strange and ironic, it will end the same way. — Dante Alighieri

And what is laughter but a flashing of the soul, that is, a light appearing externally as it is within. — Dante Alighieri

They find seven cornices on which penitent and redeemed sinners are cleansed by the grace of God. On the first cornice, that of Pride, the proud are learning humility: Our Father, dwelling in the Heavens, nowise As circumscribed, but as the things above, Thy first effects, are dearer in Thine eyes, Hallowed Thy name be and the Power thereof, By every creature, as right meet it is We praise the tender effluence of Thy love. Let come to us, let come Thy kingdom's peace. — Dante Alighieri

At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost ... — Dante Alighieri

I'm not alone in misery of soul. — Dante Alighieri

Could I have everything for which I long, You would not still endure this banishment way from human nature," I replied. "Your image - dear, fatherly, benevolent - Being fixed inside my memory, has imbued My heart: when in the fair world, hour by hour You taught me, patiently, it was you who showed The way man makes himself eternal; therefore, The gratitude I feel toward you makes fit That while I live, I should declare it here. And what you tell me of my future, I write — Dante Alighieri

As little flowers, which the chill of night has bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes, grow straight and open fully on their stems, so did I, too, with my exhausted force. — Dante Alighieri

The glory of Him who moves everything penetrates through the universe, and is resplendent in one part more and in another less. — Dante Alighieri

Here pity only lives when it is dead - Virgil — Dante Alighieri

There is no greater sorrow
than thinking back upon a happy time
in misery
— Dante Alighieri

Why have you let your mind get so entwined,"
my master said, "that you have slowed your walk?
Why should you care about what's whispered here?
Come, follow me, and let these people talk:
stand like a sturdy tower that does not shake
its summit though the winds may blast; always
the man in whom thought thrusts ahead of thought
allows the goal he's set to move far off-
the force of one thought saps the other's force. — Dante Alighieri

Life is a " vale of tears" a period of trial and suffering, an unpleasant but necessary preparation for the afterlife where alone man could expect to enjoy happiness - Archibald T. MacAllister (The Inferno; Dante Alighieri translated by John Ciardi) — Dante Alighieri

No man may be so cursed by priest or pope but what the Eternal Love may still return while any thread of green lives on in hope. — Dante Alighieri

Mankind, why do ye set your hearts on things That, of necessity, may not be shared? — Dante Alighieri

Soon you will be where your own eyes will see the source and cause and give you their own answer to the mystery. — Dante Alighieri

True love is never lost, not even by a bishop's or a priest's curse, that we cannot regain it, so long as hope has still its bit of green. — Dante Alighieri

He who know most grieves most for wasted time. — Dante Alighieri

FIRST CIRCLE. Here they find the VIRTUOUS PAGANS. They were born without the light of Christ's revelation, and, therefore, they cannot come into the light of God, but they are not tormented. Their only pain is that they have no hope. — Dante Alighieri

Love is the source of every virtue in you and of every deed which deserves punishment. — Dante Alighieri

Midway upon the journey of our life — Dante Alighieri

As flowerlets drooped and puckered in the night turn up to the returning sun and spread their petals wide on his new warmth and light-just so my wilted spirits rose again and such a heat of zeal surged through my veins that I was born anew. — Dante Alighieri

Great fire can follow a small spark: there may be better voices after me to pray to Cyrrha's god for aid - that he may answer. — Dante Alighieri

Three things remain with us from paradise: stars, flowers and children. — Dante Alighieri

Thy wretchedness weighs upon me, so that it to weep invites me. — Dante Alighieri

You did thirst for blood, and with blood I fill you — Dante Alighieri

Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. — Dante Alighieri

Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men. — Dante Alighieri

Doubting pleases me no less than knowing — Dante Alighieri

My soul tasted that heavenly food, which gives new appetite while it satiates. — Dante Alighieri

The experience of this sweet life. — Dante Alighieri

The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time. — Dante Alighieri

Come on, shake off the covers of this sloth, for sitting softly cushioned, or tucked in bed, is no way to win fame. — Dante Alighieri

Well, if the kid screws up, then I'll just have to kick his ass. — Dante Alighieri

The man who lies asleep will never waken fame, and his desire and all his life drift past him like a dream, and the traces of his memory fade from time like smoke in air, or ripples on a stream. — Dante Alighieri

To course across more kindly waters now my talent's little vessel lifts her sails, leaving behind herself a sea so cruel; and what I sing will be that second kingdom, in which the human soul is cleansed of sin, becoming worthy of ascent to Heaven. — Dante Alighieri

The poets leave hell and again behold the stars. — Dante Alighieri

The loser, when a game of dice is done,
remains behind reviewing every roll
sadly, and sadly wiser, and alone. — Dante Alighieri

As phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall. — Dante Alighieri

Curb your talent lest it speed where virtue does not guide. — Dante Alighieri

Because your question searches for deep meaning,
I shall explain in simple words — Dante Alighieri

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say — Dante Alighieri

When I had journeyed half of our life's way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray. — Dante Alighieri

A backward glance can often lift the heart. — Dante Alighieri

Other response, he said, I make thee not,
Except the doing; for the modest asking
Ought to be followed by the deed in silence. — Dante Alighieri

These have no hope that death will overcome.
And so degraded is the life they lead
all look with envy on all other fates. — Dante Alighieri

I cannot well repeat how there I entered, — Dante Alighieri

As at those words did I myself become;
And all my love was so absorbed in Him,
That in oblivion Beatrice was eclipsed. — Dante Alighieri

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. — Dante Alighieri

One should only be afraid of those things Which have the power of doing others harm; For the rest, fear not; because they are not fearful. — Dante Alighieri

Justice divine has weighed: the doom is clear. All hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here. — Dante Alighieri

Less shame a greater fault would palliate. — Dante Alighieri

As once I loved you in my mortal flesh, without it now I love you still. — Dante Alighieri

Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars. — Dante Alighieri

Often it is brought home to my mind
the dark quality that Love gives me,
and pity moves me, so that frequently
I say: 'Alas! is anyone so afflicted?':
since Amor assails me suddenly,
so that life almost abandons me:
only a single spirit stays with me,
and that remains because it speaks of you.
I renew my strength, because I wish for help,
and pale like this, all my courage drained,
come to you, believing it will save me:
and if I lift my eyes to gaze at you
my heart begins to tremble so,
that from my pulse the soul departs. — Dante Alighieri

The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain. — Dante Alighieri

From a small spark, Great flame has risen. — Dante Alighieri

The whole universe is but the footprint of the Divine goodness. — Dante Alighieri

Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly, that, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me. — Dante Alighieri

Lost are we, and are only so far punished,
That without hope we live on in desire. — Dante Alighieri

The more souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love ... and, mirror-like ... each soul reflects the other. — Dante Alighieri

Rejoice, Florence, seeing you are so great that over sea and land you flap your wings, and your name is widely known in Hell! — Dante Alighieri

If you follow your natural bent;you will definitely go to heaven — Dante Alighieri

how short a time the fire of love endures in woman
if frequent sight and touch do not rekindle it. — Dante Alighieri

These dwell among the blackest souls, loaded down deep by sins of differing types. If you sink far enough, you'll see them all. — Dante Alighieri

God is the love that moves the sun and stars. — Dante Alighieri

If your world isn't right, the cause is in you. — Dante Alighieri

If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought. — Dante Alighieri

Reason flies When following the senses, on clipped wings. — Dante Alighieri

Through me you go to the grief wracked city; Through me you go to everlasting pain; Through me you go a pass among lost souls. Justice inspired my exalted Creator: I am a creature of the Holiest Power, of Wisdom in the Highest and of Primal Love. Nothing till I was made was made, only eternal beings. And I endure eternally. Surrender as you enter, every hope you have. — Dante Alighieri

Perceive ye not that we are worms, designed
To form the angelic butterfly, that goes
To judgment, leaving all defence behind?
Why doth your mind take such exalted pose,
Since ye, disabled, are as insects, mean
As worm which never transformation knows? — Dante Alighieri

Do not desert me when I need you most. And if we can't go on together,
let's retrace our steps as quickly as we can. — Dante Alighieri

There are souls beneath that water. Fixed in slime
they speak their piece, end it, and start again:
'Sullen were we in the air made sweet by the Sun;
in the glory of his shining our hearts poured
a bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun;
sullen we lie forever in this ditch.'
This litany they gargle in their throats
as if they sand, but lacked the words and pitch. — Dante Alighieri

I made my own house be my gallows. — Dante Alighieri

Not one drop of blood is left inside my veins that does not throb: I recognize signs of the ancient flame. — Dante Alighieri

Until he shall have driven her back to Hell, — Dante Alighieri

If thou follow thy star, thou canst not fail of glorious heaven. — Dante Alighieri

The Commedia , it must be remembered, is a vision of the progress of man's soul toward perfection. — Dante Alighieri

Ink to parchment, words to paper, glory to Beatrice. — Dante Alighieri

And the shining strengthened me against the fright
whose agony had wracked the lake of my heart
through all the terrors of that piteous night. — Dante Alighieri

Often a retrospect delights the mind. — Dante Alighieri

Abandon every hope, you who enter. — Dante Alighieri

Lying in a featherbed will not bring you fame, nor staying beneath the quilt, and he who uses up his life without achieving fame leaves no more vestige of himself on earth than smoke in the air or foam upon the water. — Dante Alighieri

I felt for the tormented whirlwinds
Damned for their carnal sins
Committed when they let their passions rule their reason. — Dante Alighieri

All Being within this order, by the laws
of its own nature is impelled to find
its proper station round its Primal Cause.
Thus every nature moves across the tide
of the great sea of being to its own port,
each with its given instinct as its guide. — Dante Alighieri

Follow your own star! — Dante Alighieri

There is no greater sorrow ... than to be mindful of the happy time. — Dante Alighieri

My course is set for an uncharted sea. — Dante Alighieri

Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft so overcasts a man, that he recoils from noblest resolution, like a beast at some false semblance in the twilight gloom. — Dante Alighieri