Alighieri Quotes & Sayings

Now you must cast aside your laziness,"
my master said, "for he who rests on down
or under covers cannot come to fame;
and he who spends his life without renown
leaves such a vestige of himself on earth
as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water.
Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness
with spirit that can win all battles if
the body's heaviness does not deter it.
A longer ladder still is to be climbed;
it's not enough to have left them behind;
if you have understood, now profit from it. — Dante Alighieri

We climbed, he first and I behind, until though a small round opening ahead of us, I saw the lovely things the heavens hold, and we came out to see once more the stars. — Dante Alighieri

All things created have an order in themselves, and this begets the form that lets the universe resemble God. — Dante Alighieri

The mouse had fallen in with evil cats. — Dante Alighieri

...but nature scants that lights in all it makes, working in much the manner of a painter who knows the true art, but those whose brush hand shakes. — 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

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

I wept not, so to stone within I grew. — Dante Alighieri

Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people — Dante Alighieri

The chief imagination of Christendom,
Dante Alighieri, so utterly found himself
That he has made that hollow face of his
More plain to the mind's eye than any face
But that of Christ. — William Butler Yeats

O foolish anxiety of wretched man, how inconclusive are the arguments which make thee beat thy wings below! — Dante Alighieri

On march the banners of the King of Hell. — 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

From there we came outside and saw the stars — Dante Alighieri

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

In that book which is my memory,
On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you,
Appear the words, 'Here begins a new life'. — Dante Alighieri

In His will, our peace. — Dante Alighieri

As fall the light autumnal leaves, one still the other following, till the bough strews all its honors on the earth below. — Dante Alighieri

They lived before the Christian age began. They paid no reverence, as was due to God. And in this number I myself am one. 40 For such deficiencies, no other crime, we all are lost yet only suffer harm through living in desire, but hopelessly. — Dante Alighieri

Here we find the moat of thieves. And just as a lizard, with a quick, slick slither, Flicks across the highway from hedge to hedge, Fleeter than a flash, in the battering dog-day weather, A fiery little monster, livid, in a rage, Black as any peppercorn, came and made a dart At the guts of the others, and leaping to engage One of the pair, it pierced him at the part Through which we first draw food; then loosed its grip And fell before him, outstretched and apart. — Dante Alighieri

You learn by trying, making mistakes, correcting and trying again and again until your reach the desired goal, which is rarely without effort, but is rather a reward for hard work. — Dante Alighieri

And we came forth to contemplate the stars. — Dante Alighieri

Those ancients who in poetry presented
the golden age, who sang its happy state,
perhaps, in their Parnassus, dreamt this place.
Here, mankind's root was innocent; and here
were every fruit and never-ending spring;
these streams
the nectar of which poets sing. — Dante Alighieri

Even as he who glories while he gains will, when the time has come to tally loss, lament with every thought and turn despondent, — Dante Alighieri

Thy soul is by vile fear assailed — 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

Christians, be steadier in what you do, not blown like feathers at the wind's discretion, nor think that every water cleanses you... — Dante Alighieri

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

In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray,
Gone from the path direct. — Dante Alighieri

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

If you give people light, they will find their own way. — Dante Alighieri

Thus you may understand that love alone
is the true seed of every merit in you,
and of all acts for which you must atone. — Dante Alighieri

Less shame a greater fault would palliate. — Dante Alighieri

Mankind is at its best when it is most free. — Dante Alighieri

We have no hope and yet we live in longing. — Dante Alighieri

Pure essence, and pure matter, and the two joined into one were shot forth without flaw, like three bright arrows from a three-string bow. — Dante Alighieri

Knowledge comes
Of learning well retain'd, unfruitful else. — Dante Alighieri

I understood that to this mode of pain are doomed the sinners of the carnal kind, who o'er their reason let their impulse reign. — Dante Alighieri

toward the Mount.4 — Dante Alighieri

Love kindled by virtue always kindles another, provided that its flame appear outwardly. — Dante Alighieri

And I was told about this torture, that it was the Hell of carnal sins when reasons give way to desire. — Dante Alighieri

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

Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal. — Dante Alighieri

In this place piety lives where pity is dead. — Dante Alighieri

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

Ah! Justice of our God! Who else could stow
Such travails new and pains as met my glance! — 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

My guide and I crossed over and began
to mount that little known and lightless road
to ascend into the shining world again.
He first, I second, without thought of rest
we climbed the dark until we reached the point
where a round opening brought in sight the blest
and beauteous shining of the Heavenly cars.
And we walked out once more beneath the Stars. — Dante Alighieri

Remember tonight ... for it's the beginning of forever. - Dante Alighieri — Dan Brown

This sorrow weighs upon the melancholy souls of those who lived without infamy or praise. — Dante Alighieri

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

The greatest gift that God in His bounty made in creation, and the most conformable to His goodness, and that which He prizes the most, was the freedom of will, with which the creatures with intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed. — Dante Alighieri

All hope abandon, ye who enter here. — 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

I love to doubt as well as know."
~ Dante's Inferno, Canto XI, 93: "non men che saver, dubbiar m'aggrata. — Dante Alighieri

Eternal love made me. — Dante Alighieri

No, never mind, I didn't think so. Mead, Dante's theme is man-not a man.' Lowell said finally with a mild patience that he reserved only for students. "The Italians forever twitch at Dante's sleeves trying to make him say he is of their politics and their way of thinking. Their way indeed! To confine it to Florence or Italy is to banish it from the sympathies of mankind. We read Paradise Lost as a poem but Dante's Comedy as a chronicle of our inner lives. Do you boys know of Isaiah 38:10 — Matthew Pearl

He listens well who takes notes. — Dante Alighieri

To get back up to the shining world from there
My guide and I went into that hidden tunnel,
And Following its path, we took no care
To rest, but climbed: he first, then I-so far,
through a round aperture I saw appear
Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears,
Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars. — Dante Alighieri

Milton was the gold standard of religious poets for English and American scholars. But Milton wrote of Hell and Heaven from above and below, respectively, not from the inside: safer advantages. — Matthew Pearl

But in the divine nature Persons three,
And in one person the divine and human. — Dante Alighieri

I say that when she appeared, in whatever place, by the hope embodied in that marvelous greeting, for me no enemy remained, in fact I shone with a flame of charity that made me grant pardon to whoever had offended me: and if anyone had then asked me anything my reply would only have been: 'Love', with an aspect full of humility. — Dante Alighieri

Within her presence, I had once been used
to feeling - trembling - wonder, dissolution;
but that was long ago. Still, though my soul,
now she was veiled, could not see her directly,
by way of hidden force that she could move,
I felt the mighty power of old love. — Dante Alighieri

Fame is not won on downy plumes nor under canopies; the man who consumes his days without obtaining it leaves such mark of himself on earth as smoke in air or foam on water. — Dante Alighieri

The weapons of divine justice are blunted by the confession and sorrow of the offender. — Dante Alighieri

My mother used to always tell me that my father was a man who fought for the weak. He had courage and righteous heart. In the name of my father, I will kill Mundus! — 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

your soul is sunken in that cowardice that bears down many men, turning their course and resolution by imagined perils, as his own shadow turns the frightened horse. — Dante Alighieri

A rapid bolt will rend the clouds apart,
and every single White be seared by wounds.
I tell you this. I want it all to hurt. — Dante Alighieri

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

Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift. — Dante Alighieri

Open thy mind; take in what I explain and keep it there; because to understand is not to know, if thou dost not retain... — Dante Alighieri

O power of fantasy that steals our minds from things outside, to leave us unaware, although a thousand trumpets may blow loud
what stirs you if the senses show you nothing? Light stirs you, formed in Heaven, by itself, or by His will Who sends it down to us. — Dante Alighieri

Oh human creatures, born to soar aloft,
Why fall ye thus before a little wind? — Dante Alighieri

It was the hour of morning,
when the sun mounts with those stars
that shone with it when God's own love
first set in motion those fair things — 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

The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who promises to show him the punishments of Hell, and afterwards of Purgatory; and that he shall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He follows the Roman Poet. — Dante Alighieri

The broken branch hissed loudly, and then that
wind was converted into these words: Briefly will
you be answered.
When the fierce soul departs from the body from
which it has uprooted itself, Minos sends it to the
seventh mouth.
It falls into the wood, and no place is assigned to
it, but where chance hurls it, there it sprouts like a
grain of spelt.
It grows into a shoot, then a woody plant; the
Harpies, feeding on its leaves, give it pain and a
window for the pain.
Like the others, we will come for our remains, but
not so that any may put them on again, for it is not
just to have what one has taken from oneself.
Here we will drag them, and through the sad
wood our corpses will hang, each on the thornbrush
of the soul that harmed it. — Dante Alighieri

O you proud Christians, wretched souls and small,/ Who by the dim lights of your twisted minds/ Believe you prosper even as you fall,/ Can you not see that we are worms, each one/ Born to become the angelic butterfly/ That flies defenseless to the Judgement Throne? — Dante Alighieri

I am the way into the city of woe,
I am the way into eternal pain,
I am the way to go among the lost.
Justice caused my high architect to move,
Divine omnipotence created me,
The highest wisdom, and the primal love.
Before me there were no created things
But those that last forever - as do I.
Abandon all hope you who enter here. — Dante Alighieri

I am the guardian, the shepherd of sins — Dante Alighieri

I saw a point that shone with light so keen, the eye that sees it cannot bear its blazing; the star that is for us the smallest one would seem a moon if placed beside this point. — 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

They are THE OPPORTUNISTS, those souls who in life were neither for good nor evil but only for themselves. Mixed with them are those outcasts who took no sides in the Rebellion of the Angels. They are neither in Hell nor out of it. Eternally unclassified, they race round and round pursuing a wavering banner that runs forever before them through the dirty air; and as they run they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets, who sting them and produce a constant flow of blood and putrid matter which trickles down the bodies of the sinners and is feasted upon by loathsome worms and maggots who coat the ground. — 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

This mountain's of such sort that climbing it is hardest at the start; but as we rise, the slope grows less unkind. — Dante Alighieri

Without Hope we live in desire. — Dante Alighieri

I was so full of sleep at the time that I left the true way. — Dante Alighieri

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

You shall leave everything you love. — Dante Alighieri

If i thought i was replying to someone who would every return to the world, this flame would cease it's flickering. But since no one has returned from these depths alive, if what I've heard is true, I will answer you without fear of infamy. — Dante Alighieri

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

No greater grief than to remember days
Of joy, when mis'ry is at hand. — 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

Its very memory gives a shape to fear. Death could scarce be more bitter than that place! — Dante Alighieri

At this high moment, ability failed my capacity to describe. — Dante Alighieri