Dante Alighieri Quotes

Y a más de mil sombras me fué enseñando y designando con el dedo, a quienes Amor había hecho salir de esta vida.

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.

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

Yo no caí del cielo... ¡Yo subí del Infierno!

There is no greater pain than to remember, in our present grief, past happiness.

You have the light that shows you right from wrongs, and your Free Will, which, though it may grow faint in its struggles with the heavens, can still surmount all obstacles if nurtured well. You are free of subjects of a greater power, a nobler nature that creates your mind...So, if the world has gone astray, the cause lies in yourselves and only there!

[Sonetto XV]

Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare
la donna mia quand’ella altrui saluta,
ch’ogne lingua deven tremando muta,
e li occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare.

Ella si va, sentendosi laudare,
benignamente d’umiltà vestuta;
e par che sia una cosa venuta
da cielo in terra a miracol mostrare.

Mostrasi sì piacente a chi la mira,
che dà per li occhi una dolcezza al core,
che ’ntender no la può chi no la prova:

e par che de la sua labbia si mova
un spirito soave pien d’amore,
che va dicendo a l’anima: sospira

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

Soft as the early morning breeze of May,
which heralds dawn, rich with the grass and flowers,
spreading in waves their breathing fragrances,

I felt a breeze strike soft upon my brow:
I felt a wing caress it, I am sure,
I sensed the sweetness of ambrosia.

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

"Lenivosti sa teraz zbaviť treba,"
riekol môj vodca, "sotva dôjdu slávy,
čo na perí sa mäkko uvelebia.

A ten, kto bez nej márny život strávi,
len takú stopu nechá v svete celom
jak v dielke dym a pena v prúde riavy,

A preto vstaň a slabost svoju prelom
so silou duch, ktorý všetko zdolá,
ak neklesne pod svojím ťažkým telom."

The ghost of the generous poet replied: ‘If I have understood your words correctly, your spirit is attacked by cowardly fear, that often weighs men down, so that it deflects them from honourable action, like a creature seeing phantoms in the dusk.

quand' io mi mossi, e 'l troppo star si vieta».

it seemed inconceivable to him that he and mankind in general should not have been intended to develop to the fullest their specifically human potential.

At once I understood with certainty:
this company contained the cowardly,
hateful to God and to his enemies.