-
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 -
Curb your talent lest it speed where virtue does not guide.
Dante Alighieri
-
Conscience, that boon companion who sets a man free under the strong breastplate of innocence, that bids him on and fear not.
Dante Alighieri -
Of my sowing such straw I reap. O human folk, why set the heart there where exclusion of partnership is necessary.
Dante Alighieri -
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.
Dante Alighieri -
Like the lark that soars in the air, first singing, then silent, content with the last sweetness that satiates it, such seemed to me that image, the imprint of the Eternal Pleasure.
Dante Alighieri -
In judgement be ye not too confident, Even as a man who will appraise his corn When standing in a field, ere it is ripe.
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
-
...ma gia volgena il mio disio e'l velle si come rota ch'igualmente e mossa, l'amor che move: i sole e l'altre stelle ...as a wheel turns smoothtly, free from jars, my will and my desire were turned by love, The love that moves the sun and the other stars.
Dante Alighieri -
Reason flies When following the senses, on clipped wings.
Dante Alighieri -
He loves but little who can say and count in words, how much he loves.
Dante Alighieri -
In that part of the book of my memory before the which is little that can be read, there is a rubric, saying, Incipit Vita Nova. Under such rubric I find written many things; and among them the words which I purpose to copy into this little book; if not all of them, at the least their substance.
Dante Alighieri -
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’.
Dante Alighieri -
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.
Dante Alighieri
-
O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?
Dante Alighieri -
There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, and sand eddies in a whirlwind.
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 -
Compassion is not a passion; rather a noble disposition of the soul, made ready to receive love, mercy, and other charitable passions.
Dante Alighieri -
Consider the sea's listless chime: Time's self it is, made audible.
Dante Alighieri -
Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.
Dante Alighieri
-
Abandon every hope, you who enter.
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 -
I made my own house be my gallows.
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