Dante Purgatorio Quotes

All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

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.

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?

Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.

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!

Thus you may understand that love alone is the true seed of every merit in you, and of all acts for which you must atone.

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

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

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

Now you know how much my love for you burns deep in me when I forget about our emptiness, and deal with shadows as with solid things.

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

I found myself within a forest dark,

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

Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path.

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.

The mind which is created quick to love, is responsive to everything that is pleasing, soon as by pleasure it is awakened into activity. Your apprehensive faculty draws an impression from a real object, and unfolds it within you, so that it makes the mind turn thereto. And if, being turned, it inclines towards it, that inclination is love; that is nature, which through pleasure is bound anew within you.

Justice does not descend from its own pinnacle.

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.

This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.

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

Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way into eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost.

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.

I by not doing, not by doing, lost

I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightfoward pathway had been lost. Ah me! How hard a thing is to say, what was this forest savage, rough, and stern, which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more...

This mountain’s of such sort that climbing it is hardest at the start; but as we rise, the slope grows less unkind.

The well heeded well heard.

Haste denies all acts their dignity.

Be as a tower, that, firmly set, Shakes not its top for any blast that blows!

Perceive ye not that we are worms, designed To form the angelic butterfly, that goes To judgment, leaving all defence behind? Why doth your mind take such exalted pose, Since ye, disabled, are as insects, mean As worm which never transformation knows?

He who best discerns the worth of time is most distressed whenever time is lost.

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

As once I loved you in my mortal flesh, without it now I love you still.

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

The only answer that I give to you is doing it," he said. "A just request is to be met in silence, by the act.

So bitter is it, death is little more;

how short a time the fire of love endures in woman if frequent sight and touch do not rekindle it.

That with him were, what time the Love Divine

Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,

Madness it is to hope that human minds can ever understand the Infinite that comprehends Three Persons in One Being. Be satisfied with quia unexplained, O Human race! If you knew everything, no need for Mary to have borne a son.

They had their faces twisted toward their haunches and found it necessary to walk backward, because they could not see ahead of them. ...And since he wanted so to see ahead, he looks behind and walks a backward path.

My son, Here may indeed be torment, but not death.

Rejoice, Florence, seeing you are so great that over sea and land you flap your wings, and your name is widely known in Hell!

Love rules me. It determines what I ask.

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

To course across more kindly waters now my talent's little vessel lifts her sails, leaving behind herself a sea so cruel; and what I sing will be that second kingdom, in which the human soul is cleansed of sin, becoming worthy of ascent to Heaven.

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.

Soft as the early morning breeze of May, which heralds dawn, rich with the grass and flowers, spreading in waves their breathing fragrances, I felt a breeze strike soft upon my brow: I felt a wing caress it, I am sure, I sensed the sweetness of ambrosia.

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)

I cannot well repeat how there I entered,

High justice would in no way be debased if ardent love should cancel instantly the debts these penitents must satisfy.

We climbed, he first and I behind, until though a small round opening ahead of us, I saw the lovely things the heavens hold, and we came out to see once more the stars.

Oh human creatures, born to soar aloft, Why fall ye thus before a little wind?

That precious fruit which all men eagerly go searching for on many different boughs will give,today, peace to your hungry soul.

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.

So, now, with me. That brute which knows no peace came ever nearer me and, step by step, drove me back down to where the sun is mute.

Come on, shake off the covers of this sloth, for sitting softly cushioned, or tucked in bed, is no way to win fame.

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.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

إن الفن الإنساني يتبع ما استطاع الطبيعة كما يتبع طالب العلم أستاذه فالفن هو لله كمثل حفيد.

Dianzi, ne l’alba che procede al giorno, quando l’anima tua dentro dormia

If thou thy star do follow, Thou canst not fail thee of a glorious port. If well I judged in the life beautiful

Özgürlüğü arıyor o, özgürlüğün değerini uğrunda can verenler bilir en iyi.

Thy soul is by vile fear assailed

…I am left with less than one drop of my blood that does not tremble. I recognize the the signs of the old flame.

Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde

Three dispositions adverse to Heaven's still, - Incontinence, malice, and mad brutishness.

and the shining strengthened me against the fright whose agony had wracked the lake of my heart through all the terrors of that piteous night.

That infinite and indescribable good which is there above races as swiftly to love as a ray of light to a bright body. It gives of itself according to the ardor it finds, so that as charity spreads farther the eternal good increases upon it, and the more souls there are who love, up there, the more there are to love well, and the more love they reflect to each other, as in a mirror.

​Per me si va ne la città dolente, Per me si va ne l'etterno dolore, Per me si va tra la perduta gente. Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore: Fecemi la divina potestate La somma sapienza e'l primo amore Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create se non etterne, e io etterno duro. Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'intrate.

My son, you've seen the temporary fire and the eternal fire; you have reached the place past which my powers cannot see. I've brought you here through intellect and art; from now on, let your pleasure be your guide; you're past the steep and past the narrow paths. Look at the sun that shines upon your brow; look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs born here, spontaneously, of the earth. Among them, you can rest or walk until the coming of the glad and lovely eyes-- those eyes that weeping, sent me to your side. Await no further word or sign from me: your will is free, erect, and whole-- to act against that will would be to err: therefore I crown and miter you over yourself

Hell exists from within.

Neither Creator nor creature ever, Son, " he began, "was destitute of love Natural or spiritual; and thou knowest it.

You shall leave everything you love most dearly: this is the arrow that the bow of exile shoots first.

A light there is in the beyond which makes the Creator visible to the creature, who only in beholding Him finds peace.

You did as who who, walking by night, Carries the light behind him, where it does him no good, But is of advantage to those who come after him.

Mă-ntorsei, deci, de la pârâul sfânt ca nou, asemeni plantei tinerele când nouă crește-n noul său vestmânt, curat și gata să mă urc la stele.

O Virgins, sacrosanct, if I have ever, for your sake, suffered vigils,cold,, and hunger, great need makes me entreat my recompense.

beheld a power whose head was crowned with signs of victory.

Io ritornai da la santissima onda rifatto sì come piante novelle rinnovellate di novella fronda, puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.

Imagination, there on high— To high to breathe free, after such a climb— Had lost its power; but now, just like a wheel That spins so evenly it measures time By space, the deepest wish that I could feel And all my will, were turning with the love That moves the sun and all the stars above.

It is, of course, open to anyone to say that the whole idea is morbid and exaggerated--open even to those who think nothing of queuing for twenty-four hours in acute discomfort to see the first night of a musical comedy, which lasts three hours at most, which they are not sure of liking when they get there, and which they could see any other night with no trouble at all.

Thus it was up to God, to Him alone in His own ways - by one or both, I say - to give man back his whole life and perfection. But since a deed done is more prized the more it manifests within itself the mark of the loving heart and goodness of the doer, the Everlasting Love, whose seal is plain on all the wax of the world was pleased to move in all His ways to raise you up again. There was not, nor will be, from the first day to the last night, an act so glorious and so magnificent, on either way. For God, in giving Himself that man might be able to raise himself, gave even more than if he had forgiven him in mercy. All other means would have been short, I say, of perfect justice, but that God's own Son humbled Himself to take on mortal clay. -Paradiso, Canto VII

As soon as that majestic force, which had already pierced me once before I had outgrown my childhood, struck my eyes, I turned to my left with the confidence a child has running to his mamma when he is afraid or in distress to say to Virgil: 'Not a single drop of blood remains in me that does not tremble-- I know the signs of the ancient flame.' But Virgil had departed, leaving us bereft: Virgil, sweetest of fathers, Virgil, to whom I gave myself for my salvation. And not all our ancient mother lost could save my cheeks, washed in the dew, from being stained again with tears.

Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path. How hard it is to tell what it was like, this wood of wilderness, savage and stubborn (the thought of it brings back all my old fears), a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer. But if I would show the good that came of it I must talk about things other than the good.” ― Dante Alighieri

The writer, having lost his way in a gloomy forest, and being hindered by certain wild beasts from ascending a mountain, is met by Virgil, who promises to show him the punishments of Hell, and afterwards of Purgatory; and that he shall then be conducted by Beatrice into Paradise. He follows the Roman Poet.

It is arguable that when Humanists, "Shook off," as people say, "the trammels of religion," and discovered things of this world as objects of veneration in their own right... they began to lose the finer appreciation of even the world itself. Thus to the Christian centuries, the flesh was holy (or sacer at least in one sense or the other), and they veiled its awful majesty; to the Humanist centuries it was divine in its own right, and they exhibited it. Now it is the commonplace of the magazine cover. It has lost its numen. So too with the cult of knowledge for its own sake declining from the Revival of Learning to the Brains Trust.

Ahora es preciso que desheches la pereza; que no se alcanza la fama reclinado en blanda pluma ni al abrigo de colchas; y el que consume su vida sin gloria, deja en pos de sí el mismo rastro que el humo en el aire o la espuima en el agua. Ea, pues, levántate; domina la fatiga con el alma, que vence todos los obstáculos mientras no se envilece con la pesadez del cuerpo.

Now had the sun to that horizon reach'd, That covers, with the most exalted point Of its meridian circle, Salem's walls; And night, that opposite to him her orb Rounds, from the stream of Ganges issued forth, Holding the scales, that from her hands are dropt When she reigns highest: so that where I was, Aurora's white and vermeil - tinctured cheek To orange turn'd as she in age increased.

No greater grief than to remember days Of joy, when misery is at hand. That kens Thy learn’d instructor. Yet so eagerly 120 If thou art bent to know the primal root, From whence our love gat being, I will do As one, who weeps and tells his tale. One day, For our delight we read of Lancelot, 4 How him love thrall’d. Alone we were, and no 125 Suspicion near us. Oft-times by that reading Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue Fled from our alter’d cheek. But at one point Alone we fell. When of that smile we read, The wished smile so raptorously kiss’d 130 By one so deep in love, then he, who ne’er From me shall separate, at once my lips All trembling kiss’d. The book and writer both Were love’s purveyors. In its leaves that day We read no more.