Dante Alighieri quotes

Call to mind from whence we sprang: Ye were not form’d to live the life of brutes But virtue to pursue and knowledge high.

“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.

No greater grief than to remember days Of joy, when mis’ry is at hand!

One day For our delight we read of Lancelot, How him love thrall’d. Alone we were, and no Suspicion near us. Ofttimes by that reading Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue Fled from our alter’d cheek.

Here vigour fail’d the tow’ring fantasy: But yet the will roll’d onward, like a wheel In even motion, by the Love impell’d, That moves the sun in heav’n and all the stars.

In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell It were no easy task, how savage wild That forest, how robust and rough its growth, Which to remember only, my dismay Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt, Entangled him by that fair form, from me Ta’en in such cruel sort, as grieves me still: Love, that denial takes from none belov’d, Caught me with pleasing him so passing well, That, as thou see’st, he yet deserts me not.

His glory, by whose might all things are mov’d, Pierces the universe, and in one part Sheds more resplendence, elsewhere less.

I return’d From the most holy wave, regenerate, If ’en as new plants renew’d with foliage new, Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars.

Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost.

Justice incited my sublime Creator; Created me divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.

Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last. All hope abandon, ye who enter in!

Of those things only should one be afraid Which have the power of doing others harm; Of the rest, no; because they are not fearful.

And he to me: “This miserable mode Maintain the melancholy souls of those Who lived withouten infamy or praise.

There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery, and that thy Teacher knows.

Love, that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize, Seized this man for the person beautiful That was ta’en from me, and still the mode offends me.

Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, Seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly, That, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me;

Love has conducted us unto one death; Caina waiteth him who quenched our life!

Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.’