Dante Alighieri quotes:

Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.

Be as a tower firmly set; Shakes not its top for any blast that blows.

Chapter7The Fourth Circle: The Avaricious and the Prodigal. Plutus. Fortune and her Wheel. The Fifth Circle: The Irascible and the Sullen. Styx.

The secret of getting things done is to act!

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.

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)"

Nature is the art of God.

The more perfect a thing is, the more susceptible to good and bad treatment it is.

Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal.

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 sad souls of those who lived without blame and without praise.

Beauty awakens the soul to act.

Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.

Art, as far as it is able, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master; thus your art must be, as it were, God's grandchild.

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

Consider the sea's listless chime: Time's self it is, made audible.

Small projects need much more help than great.

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

All hope abandon, ye who enter here!

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

Prodigal

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

L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle (The love that moves the sun and the other stars)

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

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.

Conscience, that boon companion who sets a man free under the strong breastplate of innocence, that bids him on and fear not.

I love to doubt as well as know.

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

Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way to the eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost. Justice urged on my high artificer; My maker was divine authority, The highest wisdom, and the primal love. Before me nothing but eternal things were made, And I endure eternally. Abandon every hope, ye who enter here.

I presumed to fix my look on the eternal light so long that I consumed my sight thereon.

Eternal love made me.

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

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.

Mankind is at its best when it is most free. This will be clear if we grasp the principle of liberty. We must recall that the basic principle is freedom of choice, which saying many have on their lips but few in their minds.

The truth thy speech doth show, within my heart reproves the swelling pride. [It., Lo tuo ver dir m'incuora Buona umilta e gran tumor m'appiani.]

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. [This miserable mode Maintain the melancholy souls of those Who lived withouten infamy or praise.]

Love insists the loved loves back

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

As, pricked out with less and greater lights, between the poles of the universe, the Milky Way so gleameth white as to set very sages questioning.

I care not where my body may take me as long as my soul is embarked on a meaningful journey.

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

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.

How come I never meet any nice girls?

In that part of the book of my memory before the which is little that can be read, there is a rubric, saying, Incipit Vita Nova. Under such rubric I find written many things; and among them the words which I purpose to copy into this little book; if not all of them, at the least their substance.

Sounds like you're overcompensating... Besides, I didn't want you to get a creak in your neck from lookin' down at me.

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

O how far remov'd, Predestination! is thy foot from such As see not the First Cause entire: and ye, O mortal men! be wary how ye judge: For we, who see the Maker, know not yet The number of the chosen; and esteem Such scantiness of knowledge our delight: For all good is, in that primal good, Concentrate; and God's will and ours are one.

"The love of God, unutterable and perfect, flows into a pure soul the way light rushes into a transparent object. The more love that it finds, the more it gives itself: so that, as we grow clear and open, the more complete the joy of heaven is. And the more souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love, and, mirror like, each soul reflects the other.

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.

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.

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]

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

When you are nearer, you will understand how much your eyesight is deceived by distance. Therefore, push yourself a little harder.

O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!

I, answering in the end, began: 'Alas,how many yearning thoughts, what great desire,have lead them through such sorrow to their fate?

The path to paradise begins in hell.

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground

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

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

Haste denies all acts their dignity.

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

The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.

He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.

There is no greater sorrowthan thinking back upon a happy timein misery--

You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs.

Will cannot be quenched against its will.

The experience of this sweet life.

A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark.

Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always.

Sta come torre ferma, che non crolla Giammai la cima per soffiar de' venti. Be steadfast as a tower that doth not bend its stately summit to the tempest's shock.

I am made of God, through his Grace. Such that your misery touches me not, Nor does flame of that burning assail me.

O you proud Christians, wretched souls and small,/ Who by the dim lights of your twisted minds/ Believe you prosper even as you fall,/ Can you not see that we are worms, each one/ Born to become the angelic butterfly/ That flies defenseless to the Judgement Throne?

My course is set for an uncharted sea.

There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, and sand eddies in a whirlwind.

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.

Still desiring, we live without hope.

The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come.

From a little spark may burst a flame.

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.

He listens well who takes notes.

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

I saw a point that shone with light so keen, the eye that sees it cannot bear its blazing; the star that is for us the smallest one would seem a moon if placed beside this point.

Be like a solid tower whose brave height remains unmoved by all the winds that blow; the man who lets his thoughts be turned aside by one thing or another, will lose sight of his true goal, his mind sapped of its strength.

The more souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love... and, mirror-like... each soul reflects the other.

Follow your path, and let the people talk.

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

...ma gia volgena il mio disio e'l velle si come rota ch'igualmente e mossa, l'amor che move: i sole e l'altre stelle ...as a wheel turns smoothtly, free from jars, my will and my desire were turned by love, The love that moves the sun and the other stars.

Three things remain with us from paradise: stars, flowers and children.

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.

There is a gentle thought that often springs to life in me, because it speaks of you.

I did not die, and yet I lost lifeâ??s breath

If you give people light, they will find their own way.

If your world isn't right, the cause is in you.

For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.

Mankind is at its best when it is most free.

From a small spark, Great flame has risen.

The devil is not as black as he is painted.

In that part of the book of my memory before which little can be read, there is a heading, which says: â??Incipit vita nova: Here begins the new lifeâ??.

He loves but little who can say and count in words, how much he loves.

Without hope we live in desire.

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 was so full of sleep at the time that I left the true way.

If you follow your natural bent;you will definitely go to heaven

I affirm that gain is precisely that which comes oftener to the bad man than to the good; for illegitimate gains never come to the good at all, because they reject them. And lawful gains rarely come to the good, because, since much anxious care is needful thereto, and the anxious care of the good man is directed to weightier matters, rarely does the good man give sufficient attention thereto. Wherefore it is clear that in every way the advent of these riches is iniquitous.

The heaven that rolls around cries aloud to you while it displays its eternal beauties, and yet your eyes are fixed upon the earth alone.

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...

... 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.)

As one who sees in dreams and wakes to find the emotional impression of his vision still powerful while its parts fade from his mind - Just such am I, having lost nearly all the vision itself, while in my heart I feel the sweetness of it yet distill and fall.

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

It is no learning to understand what you do not retain.

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.

At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost...

Consider that this day ne'er dawns again.

Oh foolish desires of mortals! How weak are the reasons that lead us to not take off our flight from the ground.

There is no greater pain than to remember, in our present grief, past happiness.

...Everything that is, desires to be. As we act, we unfold our being. Enjoyment naturally follows, for a thing desired always brings delight.

Everywhere is here and every when is now.

He who awaits the call, but sees the need, Already sets his spirit to refuse it.