Dante Alighieri Quotes

Before me things created were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

Go forth and preach impostures to the world, But give them truth to build on.

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.

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.

Less shame a greater fault would palliate.

e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle" ("and thence we came forth to see again the stars")

All of nature is God's art.

There is in hell a place stone-built throughout, Called Malebolge, of an iron hue, Like to the wall that circles it about.

Will cannot be quenched against its will.

All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow which brings it forth, soon slays with parching power.

The splendors that belong unto the fame of earth are but a wind, that in the same direction lasts not long.

Fame is not won on downy plumes nor under canopies; the man who consumes his days without obtaining it leaves such mark of himself on earth as smoke in air or foam on water.

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

Do ye not comprehend that we are worms born to bring forth the angelic butterfly that flieth unto judgment without screen?

…all things created have an order in themselves, and this begets the form that lets the universe resemble God.

A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.

Of my sowing such straw I reap. O human folk, why set the heart there where exclusion of partnership is necessary

Love with delight discourses in my mindUpon my lady's admirable gifts...Beyond the range of human intellect.

You shall leave everything you love.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. [Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes]

The only fit reply to a fit request is silence and the fact.

Love, that all gentle hearts so quickly know.

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.

Behold a God more powerful than I who comes to rule over me.

Mankind, why do ye set your hearts on things That, of necessity, may not be shared?

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

I am searching for that which every man seeks-peace and rest.

Love can move the Sun and the stars.

Often a retrospect delights the mind.

Astrology, the noblest of sciences.

No sorrow is deeper than the remembrance of happiness when in misery.

Give unto us this day the daily manna Without which, in this desert where we dwell, He must go backward who would most advance.

In that book which is my memory, On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you, Appear the words, ‘Here begins a new life’.

Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood.

We have no hope and yet we live in longing.

The purpose of the whole [the Comedy] and of this portion [the Paradiso] is to remove those who are living in this life from the state of wretchedness, and to lead them to the state of blessedness.

A prayer may chance to rise From one whose heart lives in the grace of God. A prayer from any other is unheeded.

Fate's arrow, when expected, travels slow.

Imagination, that dost so abstract us That we are not aware, not even when A thousand trumpets sound about our ears!

Abandon every hope, you who enter.

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

Open your mind to what I shall disclose, and hold it fast within you; he who hears, but does not hold what he has heard, learns nothing. Beatrice - Canto V 40-42

Small projects need much more help than great.

If thou follow thy star, thou canst not fail of glorious heaven.

Curb your talent lest it speed where virtue does not guide.

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.

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

Seldom indeed does human virtue rise From trunk to branch.

Doubting pleases me no less than knowing

I made my own house be my gallows.