Dante Alighieri Quotes

When, through enjoyment (or indeed through pain) which takes possession of some inner strength, the soul is gathered up round that alone, 4 it can’t, it seems, pay heed to other powers. And this refutes the error that maintains the soul ignites in us in multiples. 7 When something, therefore, that is heard or seen holds in its thrall the lower act of soul, time passes by, and we don’t notice it.

Noi siam venuti al loco ov'i' t'ho detto
che tu vedrai le genti dolorose
c'hanno perduto il ben de l'intelletto.

We to the place have come, where I have told thee
Thou shalt behold the people dolorous
Who have foregone the good of intellect.

He has time for gossip, for prophecies, for marvelous dramatic interplays, for treatises on history, for analyzing the French monarchy, the corruption of the Church, the decay of Italian politics. He has time for all sorts of metaphysical treatises on such matters as the nature of the generative principle, literary criticism, meteorology — in short, for his whole unfinished encyclopedia. And he still has time to invent a death for Ulysses, to engage in a metamorphic contest with Ovid, to make side remarks to his friends.

When you are nearer, you will understand how much your eyesight is deceived by distance. Therefore, push yourself a little harder.

Doch bitt ich euch, gebt mir gefällig Kunde: Ist eine Seel aus Latium hier?

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.

God's greatest gift to man
In all the bounty He was moved to make
Throughout creation-the one gift the most
Close to his goodness and the one He calls
Most precious-is free will.

Era la hora en que sentir consigo el navegante enternecido quiere, el día del adiós al dulce amigo;

Se tu segui tua stella, non puoi fallire a glorioso porto.

And after he had laid his hand on mine
With joyful mien, whence I was comforted,
He led me in among the secret things.

a sense of the right-choice-alwaysbeing-made”; and this applies to everything from the smallest word to the harmonious interrelation of the principal divisions.

اي آنكه داخل ميشوي، دست از هر اميدي بشوي

The bitterest of woes Is to remember in the midst of pain A happy past;

There is no greater sorrow Than to remember a happy time when you are In misery, and that, your Teacher knows.

"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."