Dante Alighieri Quotes
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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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Unity in wills cannot be unless there is one will dominating and ruling all the rest to oneness... wills of mortals have need of a directive principle... therefore for the well-being of the world, there should be a monarchy.
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As phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall.
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At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain; the language of our sense and memory lacks the vocabulary of such pain.
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... Nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria. (There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery.)
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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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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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O faithful conscience, delicately pure, how doth a little failing wound thee sore!
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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.
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Voi vigilate ne l'etterno die.
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Love kindled by virtue always kindles another, provided that its flame appear outwardly.
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Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people.
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What shall one do with the verse, if he knows not That?
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Oh blind! Oh ignorant, self-seeking cupidity which spurs us so in the short mortal life and steeps us so through all eternity!
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Reason flies When following the senses, on clipped wings.
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Mankind, why do ye set your hearts on things That, of necessity, may not be shared?
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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.
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Imagination, that dost so abstract us That we are not aware, not even when A thousand trumpets sound about our ears!
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Curb your talent lest it speed where virtue does not guide.
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Lying in a featherbed will bring you no fame, nor staying beneath the quilt, and he who uses up his life without achieving fame leaves no more vestige of himself on Earth than smoke in the air or foam upon the water.
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As fall the light autumnal leaves, one still the other following, till the bough strews all its honors on the earth below.
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Without hope we live in desire.
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A man's renown is like the hue of grass, Which comes and goes.
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I care not where my body may take me as long as my soul is embarked on a meaningful journey.