Dante Alighieri Inferno Quotes

Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.

All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.

The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.

L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

The devil is not as black as he is painted.

There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.

Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.

O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?

They yearn for what they fear for.

Love insists the loved loves back

Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice.

Remember tonight...for it's the beginning of forever. - Dante Alighieri

There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery

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.

Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people

Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.

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.

From there we came outside and saw the stars

The day that man allows true love to appear, those things which are well made will fall into cofusion and will overturn everything we believe to be right and true.

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

I did not die, and yet I lost life’s breath

Lost are we, and are only so far punished, That without hope we live on in desire.

But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay.

Amor, ch'al cor gentile ratto s'apprende prese costui de la bella persona che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende. Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona, Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte, Che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona..." "Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart, Seized him with my beautiful form That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me. Love, which pardons no beloved from loving, took me so strongly with delight in him That, as you see, it still abandons me not...

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

For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.

As little flowers, which the chill of night has bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes, grow straight and open fully on their stems, so did I, too, with my exhausted force.

I felt for the tormented whirlwinds Damned for their carnal sins Committed when they let their passions rule their reason.

At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain; the language of our sense and memory lacks the vocabulary of such pain.

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!

أحلك الأماكن في الجحيم هي لأولئك الذين يحافظون على حيادهم في الأزمات الأخلاقية.

Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice nella miseria...

The poets leave hell and again behold the stars.

Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

Segui il tuo corso et lascia dir les genti (Follow your road and let the people say)

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

I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way into eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost. Justice caused my high architect to move, Divine omnipotence created me, The highest wisdom, and the primal love. Before me there were no created things But those that last forever—as do I. Abandon all hope you who enter here.

It was the hour of morning, when the sun mounts with those stars that shone with it when God's own love first set in motion those fair things

One ought to be afraid of nothing other then things possessed of power to do us harm, but things innoucuous need not be feared.

Love, which absolves no one beloved from loving, seized me so strongly with his charm that, as you see, it has not left me yet. Love brought us to one death.

And I — my head oppressed by horror — said: "Master, what is it that I hear? Who are those people so defeated by their pain?"       And he to me: "This miserable way is taken by the sorry souls of those who lived without disgrace and without praise.       They now commingle with the coward angels, the company of those who were not rebels nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.       The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened, have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them — even the wicked cannot glory in them.

If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

We were men once, though we've become trees

As phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall.

So that the Universe felt love, by which, as somebelieve, the world has many times been turned to chaos. And at that moment this ancient rock, here and elsewhere, fell broken into pieces.

Here pity only lives when it is dead - Virgil

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.

My thoughts were full of other things When I wandered off the path.

There is no greater sorrow than thinking back upon a happy time in misery--

Soon you will be where your own eyes will see the source and cause and give you their own answer to the mystery.

There, pride, avarice, and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a Babel of depsair

For pride and avarice and envy are the three fierce sparks that set all hearts ablaze.

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.

It is necessity and not pleasure that compels us. [Italian: Necessita c'induce, e non diletto.]

You did thirst for blood, and with blood I fill you

Before me there were no created things, Only eternity, and I too, last eternal. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!

Oh blind, oh ignorant, self-seeking cupidity which spurs as so in the short mortal life and steeps as through all eternity.

Wisdom is earned, not given

That which had pleased me once, troubled by spirit.

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.

The well heeded well heard.

Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft so overcasts a man, that he recoils from noblest resolution, like a beast at some false semblance in the twilight gloom.

A rapid bolt will rend the clouds apart, and every single White be seared by wounds. I tell you this. I want it all to hurt.

And I was told about this torture, that it was the Hell of carnal sins when reasons give way to desire.

Through me is the way to the city of woe. Through me is the way to sorrow eternal. Through me is the way to the lost below. Justice moved my architect supernal. I was constructed by divine power, supreme wisdom, and love primordial. Before me no created things were. Save those eternal, and eternal I abide. Abandon all hope, you who enter.

And as he, who with laboring breath has escaped from the deep to the shore, turns to the perilous waters and gazes.

These dwell among the blackest souls, loaded down deep by sins of differing types. If you sink far enough, you'll see them all.

And now, I pray you, tell me who you are: do not be harder than I've been with you that in the world your name may still endure.

it is his fate to enter every door. This has been willed where what is willed must be, and is not yours to question. Say no more.

So many times a man's thoughts will waver, That it turns him back from honored paths, As false sight turns a beast, when he is afraid.

As flowerlets drooped and puckered in the night turn up to the returning sun and spread their petals wide on his new warmth and light-just so my wilted spirits rose again and such a heat of zeal surged through my veins that I was born anew.

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.

And now I fell as bodies fall,for dead.

That with him were, what time the Love Divine

I made my own house be my gallows.

The wish to hear such baseness is degrading.

Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,

Being by such a noble lover kissed, This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided, Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.

your soul has been assailed by cowardice, which often weighs so heavily on a man-- distracting him from honorable trials-- as phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall.

You've built yourselves a god from silver and gold. How does that differ from idol worship, except Those people worship one god and you a hundred?

One should only be afraid of those things Which have the power of doing others harm; For the rest, fear not; because they are not fearful.

Ahi serva Italia, di dolore ostello, / nave senza nocchiere in gran tempesta, / non donna di province, ma bordello.

I make no other answer than the act, the Master said: "The only fit reply to a fit request is silence and the fact." [XXIV]

Lying in a featherbed will not bring you 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.

If i thought i was replying to someone who would every return to the world, this flame would cease it's flickering. But since no one has returned from these depths alive, if what I've heard is true, I will answer you without fear of infamy.

On march the banners of the King of Hell.

You were not made to live like brute beasts, but to pursue virtue and knowledge

There is no greater sorrow than to recall our time of joy in wretchedness.

Life is a " vale of tears" a period of trial and suffering, an unpleasant but necessary preparation for the afterlife where alone man could expect to enjoy happiness - Archibald T. MacAllister (The Inferno; Dante Alighieri translated by John Ciardi)

When any of our faculties retains a strong impression of delight or pain, the soul will wholly concentrate on that, neglecting any other power it has; and thus, when something seen or heard secures the soul in stringent grip, time moves and yet we do not notice it.

Now you must cast aside your laziness," my master said, "for he who rests on down or under covers cannot come to fame; and he who spends his life without renown leaves such a vestige of himself on earth as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water. Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness with spirit that can win all battles if the body's heaviness does not deter it. A longer ladder still is to be climbed; it's not enough to have left them behind; if you have understood, now profit from it.

Noi leggeveamo un giorno per diletto Di Lancialotto, come amor lo strinse; Soli eravamo e senza alcun sospetto Per più fiate gli occhi ci sospinse Quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso; Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse. Quando leggemmo il disiato riso Esser baciato da cotanto amante, Questi, che mai da me non fia diviso, La bocca mi baciò tutto tremante. Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse: Quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante." ""We were reading one day, to pass the time, of Lancelot, how love had seized him. We were alone, and without any suspicion And time and time again our eyes would meet over that literature, and our faces paled, and yet one point alone won us. When we had read how the desired smile was kissed by so true a lover, This one, who never shall be parted from me, kissed my mouth, all a-tremble. Gallehault was the book and he who wrote it That day we read no further.

Why have you let your mind get so entwined," my master said, "that you have slowed your walk? Why should you care about what's whispered here? Come, follow me, and let these people talk: stand like a sturdy tower that does not shake its summit though the winds may blast; always the man in whom thought thrusts ahead of thought allows the goal he's set to move far off- the force of one thought saps the other's force.

As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off, First one and then another, till the branch Surrenders all its spoils to the earth;   In similar fashion did these evil seeds of Adam throw Themselves from the group, one by one, into the boat At Charon's signal, as a bird is called to its lure.

There are souls beneath that water. Fixed in slime they speak their piece, end it, and start again: 'Sullen were we in the air made sweet by the Sun; in the glory of his shining our hearts poured a bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun; sullen we lie forever in this ditch.' This litany they gargle in their throats as if they sand, but lacked the words and pitch.

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.

Through me you go to the grief wracked city; Through me you go to everlasting pain; Through me you go a pass among lost souls. Justice inspired my exalted Creator: I am a creature of the Holiest Power, of Wisdom in the Highest and of Primal Love. Nothing till I was made was made, only eternal beings. And I endure eternally. Surrender as you enter, every hope you have.

The broken branch hissed loudly, and then that wind was converted into these words: "Briefly will you be answered. When the fierce soul departs from the body from which it has uprooted itself, Minos sends it to the seventh mouth. It falls into the wood, and no place is assigned to it, but where chance hurls it, there it sprouts like a grain of spelt. It grows into a shoot, then a woody plant; the Harpies, feeding on its leaves, give it pain and a window for the pain. Like the others, we will come for our remains, but not so that any may put them on again, for it is not just to have what one has taken from oneself. Here we will drag them, and through the sad wood our corpses will hang, each on the thornbrush of the soul that harmed it.

those cries rose from among the twisted roots through which the spirits of the damned were slinking to hide from us. Therefore my Master said: 'If you break off a twig, what you will learn will drive what you are thinking from your head.' Puzzled, I raised my hand a bit and slowly broke off a branchlet from an enormous thorn: and the great trunk of it cried: 'Why do you break me?' And after blood had darkened all the bowl of the wound, it cried again: 'Why do you tear me? Is there no pity left in any soul? Men we were, and now we are changed to sticks; well might your hand have been more merciful were we no more than souls of lice and ticks.' As a green branch with one end all aflame will hiss and sputter sap out of the other as the air escapes- so from that trunk there came words and blood together, gout by gout. Startled, I dropped the branch that I was holding and stood transfixed by fear,...