Dante Alighieri Quotes

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.

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.

No sorrow is deeper than the remembrance of happiness when in misery.

Hope not ever to see heaven. I come to lead you to the other shore; into the eternal darkness; into fire and ice.

Reason flies When following the senses, on clipped wings.

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

The devil is not as black as he is painted.

He who awaits the call, but sees the need, Already sets his spirit to refuse it.

Before me things created were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!

If a thief helps a poor man out of the spoils of his thieving, we must not call that charity.

…all things created have an order in themselves, and this begets the form that lets the universe resemble God.

The infernal storm, eternal in its rage, sweeps and drives the spirits with its blast; it whirls them, lashing them with punishment. When they are swept back past their place of judgment then come the shrieks, laments, and anguished cries; there they blaspheme God's almighty power.

If you're asking for a date, forget it. 'Cause I make it a point not to go out with women who shoot me in the head!

Nature is the art of God.

But if, as morning rises, dreams are true.

Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way to the eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost. Justice urged on my high artificer; My maker was divine authority, The highest wisdom, and the primal love. Before me nothing but eternal things were made, And I endure eternally. Abandon every hope, ye who enter here.

This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.

Where the way is hardest, there go thou; Follow your own path and let people talk.

He whom you see-along the downward arc- was William, and the land that mourns his death, for living Charles and Frederick, now laments; now he has learned how Heaven loves the just ruler, and he would show this outwardly as well, so radiantly visible.

Give unto us this day the daily manna Without which, in this desert where we dwell, He must go backward who would most advance.

When we encountered a band of souls coming along the barrier, and each was gazing at us in the evening people gaze at one another under the new moon

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.

The human race is in the best condition when it has the greatest degree of liberty.

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

He is, most of all, l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

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.

He loves but little who can say and count in words, how much he loves.

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.

Consider the sea's listless chime: Time's self it is, made audible.

All hope abandon, ye who enter here!

Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I shall endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

Do ye not comprehend that we are worms born to bring forth the angelic butterfly that flieth unto judgment without screen?

As the geometer intently seeks to square the circle, but he cannot reach, through thought on thought, the principle he needs, so I searched that strange sight.

Astrology, the noblest of sciences.

And we came forth to contemplate the stars.

In that part of the book of my memory before which little can be read, there is a heading, which says: ‘Incipit vita nova: Here begins the new life’.

Here let dead poetry rise once more to life.

The only fit reply to a fit request is silence and the fact.

Everywhere is here and every when is now.

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

Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path. How hard it is to tell what it was like, this wood of wilderness, savage and stubborn (the thought of it brings back all my old fears), a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer. But if I would show the good that came of it I must talk about things other than the good.

That infinite and indescribable good which is there above races as swiftly to love as a ray of light to a bright body.It gives of itself according to the ardor it finds, so that as charity spreads farther the eternal good increases upon it,and the more souls there are who love, up there, the more there are to love well, and the more love they reflect to each other, as in a mirror.

Follow your path, and let the people talk.

I affirm that gain is precisely that which comes oftener to the bad man than to the good; for illegitimate gains never come to the good at all, because they reject them. And lawful gains rarely come to the good, because, since much anxious care is needful thereto, and the anxious care of the good man is directed to weightier matters, rarely does the good man give sufficient attention thereto. Wherefore it is clear that in every way the advent of these riches is iniquitous.

O you, who in some pretty boat, Eager to listen, have been following Behind my ship, that singing sails along Turn back to look again upon your own shores; Tempt not the deep, lest unawares, In losing me, you yourselves might be lost. The sea I sail has never yet been passed; Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. You other few who have neck uplifted Betimes to the bread of angels upon Which one lives and does not grow sated, Well may you launch your vessel Upon the deep sea.

No one thinks of how much blood it costs.

Go right on and listen as thou goest.