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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.
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And when he had put his hand on mine with a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, he brought me within to the secret things. Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding through the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utterances, words of woe, accents of anger, voices high and faint, and sounds of hands with them, were making a tumult which whirls always in that air forever dark, like the sand when the whirlwind breathes.
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The heavens call to you, and circle about you, displaying to you their eternal splendors, and your eye gazes only to earth.
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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.
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What shall one do with the verse, if he knows not That?
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O faithful conscience, delicately pure, how doth a little failing wound thee sore!
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Thou shall know by experience how salt the savor is of others' bread, and how sad a path it is to climb and descend another's stairs.
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Genus vero philosophie, sub quo hic in toto et parte proceditur, est morale negotium, sive ethica; quia non ad speculandum, sed ad opus inventum est totum et pars.
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And here Dante describes an evidently spherical world... "The lamp of the world the sun rises to mortals through different passages; but through that which joins four circles with three crosses the position of the rising sun at the vernal equinox it issues with a better course and conjoined with better stars, and tempers and stamps the wax of the world more after its own fashion. Although such an outlet had made morning there and evening here, and all the hemisphere there was bright, and the other dark..."
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My soul tasted that heavenly food, which gives new appetite while it satiates.
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If anyone should want to know my name, I am called Leah. And I spend all my time weaving garlands of flowers with my fair hands, t o please me when I stand before the mirror; my sister Rachel sits all the day long before her own, and never moves away. She loves to contemplate her lovely eyes; I love to use my hands to adorn myself: her joy is in reflection, mine in act.
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Love kindled by virtue always kindles another, provided that its flame appear outwardly.
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Doubting pleases me no less than knowing.
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Go right on and listen as thou goest.
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Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.
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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.
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There is a gentle thought that often springs to life in me, because it speaks of you.
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Of my sowing such straw I reap. O human folk, why set the heart there where exclusion of partnership is necessary.
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Love with delight discourses in my mind Upon my lady's admirable gifts... Beyond the range of human intellect.
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Curb your talent lest it speed where virtue does not guide.
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There is in hell a place stone-built throughout, Called Malebolge, of an iron hue, Like to the wall that circles it about.
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Compassion is not a passion; rather a noble disposition of the soul, made ready to receive love, mercy, and other charitable passions.
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Stand firm as the tower that never shakes its top whatever wind may blow.
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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!