The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise
DARK WOOOD
Dante wrote:
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood, where the right way was lost.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto I, pg 1
CHANGE COURSE
Dante wrote:
“ It behooves thee to hold another course,” he replied when he saw me weeping.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto I, pg 2
FEAR ONLY POWER TO HARM
Dante wrote:
One need be afraid only of those thing that have power to do one harm,…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto II pg 3
NO SIN, BUT NO BAPTISM
Dante wrote:
… these did not sin; and though they have merits it suffices not, because they did not have baptism, which is part of the faith that thou believest;
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IV, pg 5
PEOPLE OF MUCH WORTH IN LIMBO
Dante wrote:
Great woe seized me at my heart when I heard him, because I knew that people of much worth were suspended in that limbo.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IV, pg 5
NO GREATER WOE, REMEMBERING IN MISERY THE HAPPY TIMES
Dante wrote:
There is no greater woe than the remembering in misery the happy time, and that they Teacher knows. But if thou hast so great desire to know the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto V, pg 8
STRUGGLE FOR GOLD
Dante wrote:
Ill-giving and ill-keeping have taken from them the beautiful world, and set them to the scuffle; what that is I adorn not words for it. Now son, thou canst see the brief jest of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which the human race struggle with each other; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, could not of these weary souls make a single one repose.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VII, pg 10
THOSE WHOM ANGER OVERCAME
Dante wrote:
They were smiting each other, not with hand only, but with the head, with the chest, and with the feet, mangling one another piecemeal with their teeth. The good Master said: “Son, now thou seest the souls of those whom anger overcame…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VII, pg 10
SECRET GATE
Dante wrote:
This their insolences is not new, for of old they used it at a less secret gate, which still is found without a bolt. Above it thou didst see the dead inscription; and already, on this side of it, is descending the steep, passing without escort through the circles, One such that by him the city shall be opened to us.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VIII, pg 12
CANNOT ENTER WITHOUT ANGER
Dante wrote:
…when she made me enter within that wall, in order to draw thence a spirit of the circle of Judas. That is the lowest place, and the darkest, and the farthest from the Heaven which encircles all. I know the road well; therefore assure thyself. This march which breathes out the great stench girds round the woeful city wherein now we cannot enter without anger.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IX, pg 12
ANCIENT SCUM
Dante wrote:
… direct the nerve of sight across the ancient scum, there yonder where that fume is most bitter.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IX, pg 13
THY MODE OF SPEECH MAKES MANIFEST
Dante wrote:
O Tuscan who goest they way alive through the city of fire, speaking thus modestly, may it please thee to stop in this place. Thy mode of speech makes manifest that thou are native of that noble fatherland to which perchance I was too molestful.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto X, pg 13
THE LESSONS OF THE ANCESTORS
Dante wrote:
“Who were they ancestors?... They were fiercely adverse to me and to my forefathers and to my party, so that at two times I scattered them.”
“If they were driven out, they returned from every side,” replied I to him, “both the one and the other time, but yours have not learned well that art.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto X, pg 14
FRAUD
Dante wrote:
Of every wickedness that acquires hate in heaven injury is the end, and every such end afflicts others either by force or by fraud. But because fraud is an evil peculiar to man it more displease God and therefore the fraudulent are the lower and woe assails them more.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XI, pg 15
VIOLENCE: TO GOD, TO SELF, TO NEIGHBOR
Dante wrote:
… because violence is done to three persons, it is divided and constructed in three rounds To God, to one’s self, to one’ neighbor…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XI, pg 15
UNSEEN VOICES:
Dante wrote:
I heard wailings uttered on every side, and I saw no one who made them, wherefore, all bewildered, I stopped. I believe that he believed that I believed that all these voices issued from amid those trunks…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18
CUT TWIG, THOUGHTS CUT SHORT
Dante wrote:
If thou break off any twig from one of these plants, the thoughts thou hast will all be cut short.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18
CRYING PLANTS - WHY DOES THOU BREAK ME?
Dante wrote:
Then I stretched my hand a little forward and plucked a little branch from a great thornbush and its trunk cried out: “Why does thou break me?” When I had become dark with blood it began again to cry: “Why doest thou tear me? Hast thou not any spirit of pity? Men we were and now we are become stocks; …”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18
PLEASING QUESTIONS
Dante wrote:
In all thy questions truly thou pleases me.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIV, pg 21
CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
Dante wrote:
Stop thou, who by thy garb seemest to us to be one from our wicked city!
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
HASTE BETTER BEFITTED THEE THAN THEM
Dante wrote:
… to these one should be courteous and were it not for the fire which the nature of the places shoots forth, I should say that haste better befitted thee than them.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
LIVING FEET THROUGH HELL
Dante wrote:
…let our fame incline thy mind to tell us who thou art, that so securely rubbest thy living feet through Hell.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
INJURES ME
Dante wrote:
… and surely my savage wife more than aught else injures me.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
SOUL DIRECT THY LIMBS
Dante wrote:
So may thy soul long direct thy limbs.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 23
LOOK WITHIN THE THOUGHTS
Dante wrote:
Ah! How cautious ought men to be near those who see not only the deed, but with their wisdom look within the thoughts.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 23
EVER SEEING THE PAST
Dante wrote:
… for their face was turned toward their reins, and they must needs go backwards, because looking for ward was taken from them.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XX, pg 28
WONDERFULLY DARK
Dante wrote:
Thus from bridge to bridge we went, talking of other things, which my Comedy cares not to sing, and were holding the summit, when we stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge and the next vain lamentations; and I saw it wonderfully dark.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30
FLY FROM IT
Dante wrote:
Then I turned as one who is in haste to see that from which it behoves him to fly, and whom a sudden fear dismays, and who for seeing delays not to depart, …
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30
WILD ROAD
Dante wrote:
Let me go on, for in Heaven it is willed that I show to another the wild road.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30
INTEGRITY
Dante wrote:
… I feared thy would not keep their compact.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 31
BROKEN AT HIS DEATH
Dante wrote:
Yesterday, five hours later than this, completed one thousand two hundred and sixty-six years since the way was broken here
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 31
Footnote: By the earthquake at the death of the Savior, who it was believed was thirty-four years old at his crucifixion.
OUTWARD DAZZLES
Dante wrote:
Outwardly they are hilded, so that it dazzles, but within all lead, and so heavy…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIII, pg 33
COLLEGE OF THE WRETCHED HYPOCRITES
Dante wrote:
O Tuscan,who to the college of the wretched hypocrites art come, hold it not in disdain to tell who thou art.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIII, pg 34
PUT OFF SLOTH
Dante wrote:
“Henceforth it behoves thee thus to put off sloth, “said the Master, “for, sitting upon down or under quilt, one comes not to fame, without which he who consumes his life leaves such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air, or the foam on water, and therefore rise up, conquer thy panting with the soul that wins every battle, if it be not weighed down by its heavy body.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIV, pg 35
SPEAKING IN ORDER NOT TO SEEM EXHAUSTED
Dante wrote:
Up along the crag we took the way, which was rugged, narrow, and difficult, and far steeper than the one before. I was going along speaking in order not to seem exhausted…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIV, pg 35
SORROW
Dante wrote:
I sorrowed then and now I sorrow again when I direct my mind to what I saw…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXVI, pg 38
DIVIDED FIRE
Dante wrote:
Who is in that fire which comes so divided at its top that it seems to rise from the pyre on which Eteocles was put with his brother?
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXVI, pg 38
THE LOST, TRAVEL IN VAIN
Dante wrote:
We went along over the solitary plain like a man who turns to the road which he has lost, and till he find it, seems to himself to go in vain.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto I, pg 54
AS I LOVED THEE IN BODY, I LOVE THEE
Dante wrote:
I saw one of them drawing forward to embrace me with so great affection, that it moved me to do the like, O shades, empty save in aspect! Three times I clasped my hands behind it, and as often returned with them unto my breast. With wonder, I believe, I painted me; whereat the shade smiled and drew back and I, following it, pressed forward. Gently it said, that I should pause; then I knew who it was, and I prayed it that it would stay to speak with me a little. It replied to me: “Even as I loved thee in the mortal body, so loosed from it I love thee; therefore I stay, but wherefore art thou going?”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto II, pg 55
STAND FIRM
Dante wrote:
“Stand like a firm tower that never wags its top for blowing of the winds; for always the man in whom thought on thought wells up removes from himself his mark, because one weakens the force of the other.” What could I answer, save: “I come”? I said it overspread somewhat with the color, which at times, makes a man worthy of pardon.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto V, pg 59
SECOND WIND
Dante wrote:
And I: “My Lord, let us go on with greater speed, for now I am not weary as a while ago; and see how the hill now casts its shadow.” “We will go forward with this day,” he answered, “as much farther as is now possible for us, but the fact is otherwise than thou supposest.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VI, pg 61
DARKNESS HAMPERS THE WILL
Dante wrote:
“See, only this line thou couldst not pass after the sun is gone; not, however, that aught else than the nocturnal darkness would give hindrance to going up; that hampers the will with impotence. One might indeed, in the darkness turn downward, and walk, the hillside wandering around, while the horizon holds the day shut up.” Thereon my Lord, as if wondering said: “Lead us, then there where thou sayest one may have delight while waiting.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VII, pg 63
RARELY FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
Dante wrote:
Rarely does human goodness rise through the branches, and this He wills who gives it, in order that it may be claimed from Him. To the large nosed one my words apply not less than to the other, Peter, who is singing with him; wherefore Apulia and Provence are now grieving. The plant is as inferior to its see, as, more than Beatrice and Margaret, Constance still boasts of her husband. See the King of the simple life sitting there alone, Henry of England; he in his branches has a better issue. That one who lowest among them is seated on the ground, looking upward, is William the Marquis, for whom Alessandria and her war make Monferrat and Canavese mourn.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VII, pg 64
VOCABULARY - The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
Augury, pg 29
divination from auspices or omens
Incontinence, pg 16
unable to contain or retain; lacking in moderation or self-control; unceasing or unrestrained
Opprobrious, pg 9
adj. Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive, Bringing disgrace; shameful or infamous
Repose, pg 10
To lie at rest; to rest. "Within a thicket Repose
Figuratively, to remain or abide restfully without anxiety or alarms. "It is upon these that the soul may Repose
To lie; recline; couch; rest; sleep; settle; lodge; abide
DARK WOOOD
Dante wrote:
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood, where the right way was lost.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto I, pg 1
CHANGE COURSE
Dante wrote:
“ It behooves thee to hold another course,” he replied when he saw me weeping.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto I, pg 2
FEAR ONLY POWER TO HARM
Dante wrote:
One need be afraid only of those thing that have power to do one harm,…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto II pg 3
NO SIN, BUT NO BAPTISM
Dante wrote:
… these did not sin; and though they have merits it suffices not, because they did not have baptism, which is part of the faith that thou believest;
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IV, pg 5
PEOPLE OF MUCH WORTH IN LIMBO
Dante wrote:
Great woe seized me at my heart when I heard him, because I knew that people of much worth were suspended in that limbo.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IV, pg 5
NO GREATER WOE, REMEMBERING IN MISERY THE HAPPY TIMES
Dante wrote:
There is no greater woe than the remembering in misery the happy time, and that they Teacher knows. But if thou hast so great desire to know the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto V, pg 8
STRUGGLE FOR GOLD
Dante wrote:
Ill-giving and ill-keeping have taken from them the beautiful world, and set them to the scuffle; what that is I adorn not words for it. Now son, thou canst see the brief jest of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which the human race struggle with each other; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, could not of these weary souls make a single one repose.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VII, pg 10
THOSE WHOM ANGER OVERCAME
Dante wrote:
They were smiting each other, not with hand only, but with the head, with the chest, and with the feet, mangling one another piecemeal with their teeth. The good Master said: “Son, now thou seest the souls of those whom anger overcame…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VII, pg 10
SECRET GATE
Dante wrote:
This their insolences is not new, for of old they used it at a less secret gate, which still is found without a bolt. Above it thou didst see the dead inscription; and already, on this side of it, is descending the steep, passing without escort through the circles, One such that by him the city shall be opened to us.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VIII, pg 12
CANNOT ENTER WITHOUT ANGER
Dante wrote:
…when she made me enter within that wall, in order to draw thence a spirit of the circle of Judas. That is the lowest place, and the darkest, and the farthest from the Heaven which encircles all. I know the road well; therefore assure thyself. This march which breathes out the great stench girds round the woeful city wherein now we cannot enter without anger.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IX, pg 12
ANCIENT SCUM
Dante wrote:
… direct the nerve of sight across the ancient scum, there yonder where that fume is most bitter.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IX, pg 13
THY MODE OF SPEECH MAKES MANIFEST
Dante wrote:
O Tuscan who goest they way alive through the city of fire, speaking thus modestly, may it please thee to stop in this place. Thy mode of speech makes manifest that thou are native of that noble fatherland to which perchance I was too molestful.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto X, pg 13
THE LESSONS OF THE ANCESTORS
Dante wrote:
“Who were they ancestors?... They were fiercely adverse to me and to my forefathers and to my party, so that at two times I scattered them.”
“If they were driven out, they returned from every side,” replied I to him, “both the one and the other time, but yours have not learned well that art.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto X, pg 14
FRAUD
Dante wrote:
Of every wickedness that acquires hate in heaven injury is the end, and every such end afflicts others either by force or by fraud. But because fraud is an evil peculiar to man it more displease God and therefore the fraudulent are the lower and woe assails them more.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XI, pg 15
VIOLENCE: TO GOD, TO SELF, TO NEIGHBOR
Dante wrote:
… because violence is done to three persons, it is divided and constructed in three rounds To God, to one’s self, to one’ neighbor…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XI, pg 15
UNSEEN VOICES:
Dante wrote:
I heard wailings uttered on every side, and I saw no one who made them, wherefore, all bewildered, I stopped. I believe that he believed that I believed that all these voices issued from amid those trunks…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18
CUT TWIG, THOUGHTS CUT SHORT
Dante wrote:
If thou break off any twig from one of these plants, the thoughts thou hast will all be cut short.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18
CRYING PLANTS - WHY DOES THOU BREAK ME?
Dante wrote:
Then I stretched my hand a little forward and plucked a little branch from a great thornbush and its trunk cried out: “Why does thou break me?” When I had become dark with blood it began again to cry: “Why doest thou tear me? Hast thou not any spirit of pity? Men we were and now we are become stocks; …”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18
PLEASING QUESTIONS
Dante wrote:
In all thy questions truly thou pleases me.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIV, pg 21
CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
Dante wrote:
Stop thou, who by thy garb seemest to us to be one from our wicked city!
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
HASTE BETTER BEFITTED THEE THAN THEM
Dante wrote:
… to these one should be courteous and were it not for the fire which the nature of the places shoots forth, I should say that haste better befitted thee than them.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
LIVING FEET THROUGH HELL
Dante wrote:
…let our fame incline thy mind to tell us who thou art, that so securely rubbest thy living feet through Hell.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
INJURES ME
Dante wrote:
… and surely my savage wife more than aught else injures me.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22
SOUL DIRECT THY LIMBS
Dante wrote:
So may thy soul long direct thy limbs.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 23
LOOK WITHIN THE THOUGHTS
Dante wrote:
Ah! How cautious ought men to be near those who see not only the deed, but with their wisdom look within the thoughts.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 23
EVER SEEING THE PAST
Dante wrote:
… for their face was turned toward their reins, and they must needs go backwards, because looking for ward was taken from them.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XX, pg 28
WONDERFULLY DARK
Dante wrote:
Thus from bridge to bridge we went, talking of other things, which my Comedy cares not to sing, and were holding the summit, when we stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge and the next vain lamentations; and I saw it wonderfully dark.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30
FLY FROM IT
Dante wrote:
Then I turned as one who is in haste to see that from which it behoves him to fly, and whom a sudden fear dismays, and who for seeing delays not to depart, …
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30
WILD ROAD
Dante wrote:
Let me go on, for in Heaven it is willed that I show to another the wild road.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30
INTEGRITY
Dante wrote:
… I feared thy would not keep their compact.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 31
BROKEN AT HIS DEATH
Dante wrote:
Yesterday, five hours later than this, completed one thousand two hundred and sixty-six years since the way was broken here
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 31
Footnote: By the earthquake at the death of the Savior, who it was believed was thirty-four years old at his crucifixion.
OUTWARD DAZZLES
Dante wrote:
Outwardly they are hilded, so that it dazzles, but within all lead, and so heavy…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIII, pg 33
COLLEGE OF THE WRETCHED HYPOCRITES
Dante wrote:
O Tuscan,who to the college of the wretched hypocrites art come, hold it not in disdain to tell who thou art.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIII, pg 34
PUT OFF SLOTH
Dante wrote:
“Henceforth it behoves thee thus to put off sloth, “said the Master, “for, sitting upon down or under quilt, one comes not to fame, without which he who consumes his life leaves such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air, or the foam on water, and therefore rise up, conquer thy panting with the soul that wins every battle, if it be not weighed down by its heavy body.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIV, pg 35
SPEAKING IN ORDER NOT TO SEEM EXHAUSTED
Dante wrote:
Up along the crag we took the way, which was rugged, narrow, and difficult, and far steeper than the one before. I was going along speaking in order not to seem exhausted…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIV, pg 35
SORROW
Dante wrote:
I sorrowed then and now I sorrow again when I direct my mind to what I saw…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXVI, pg 38
DIVIDED FIRE
Dante wrote:
Who is in that fire which comes so divided at its top that it seems to rise from the pyre on which Eteocles was put with his brother?
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXVI, pg 38
THE LOST, TRAVEL IN VAIN
Dante wrote:
We went along over the solitary plain like a man who turns to the road which he has lost, and till he find it, seems to himself to go in vain.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto I, pg 54
AS I LOVED THEE IN BODY, I LOVE THEE
Dante wrote:
I saw one of them drawing forward to embrace me with so great affection, that it moved me to do the like, O shades, empty save in aspect! Three times I clasped my hands behind it, and as often returned with them unto my breast. With wonder, I believe, I painted me; whereat the shade smiled and drew back and I, following it, pressed forward. Gently it said, that I should pause; then I knew who it was, and I prayed it that it would stay to speak with me a little. It replied to me: “Even as I loved thee in the mortal body, so loosed from it I love thee; therefore I stay, but wherefore art thou going?”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto II, pg 55
STAND FIRM
Dante wrote:
“Stand like a firm tower that never wags its top for blowing of the winds; for always the man in whom thought on thought wells up removes from himself his mark, because one weakens the force of the other.” What could I answer, save: “I come”? I said it overspread somewhat with the color, which at times, makes a man worthy of pardon.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto V, pg 59
SECOND WIND
Dante wrote:
And I: “My Lord, let us go on with greater speed, for now I am not weary as a while ago; and see how the hill now casts its shadow.” “We will go forward with this day,” he answered, “as much farther as is now possible for us, but the fact is otherwise than thou supposest.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VI, pg 61
DARKNESS HAMPERS THE WILL
Dante wrote:
“See, only this line thou couldst not pass after the sun is gone; not, however, that aught else than the nocturnal darkness would give hindrance to going up; that hampers the will with impotence. One might indeed, in the darkness turn downward, and walk, the hillside wandering around, while the horizon holds the day shut up.” Thereon my Lord, as if wondering said: “Lead us, then there where thou sayest one may have delight while waiting.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VII, pg 63
RARELY FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
Dante wrote:
Rarely does human goodness rise through the branches, and this He wills who gives it, in order that it may be claimed from Him. To the large nosed one my words apply not less than to the other, Peter, who is singing with him; wherefore Apulia and Provence are now grieving. The plant is as inferior to its see, as, more than Beatrice and Margaret, Constance still boasts of her husband. See the King of the simple life sitting there alone, Henry of England; he in his branches has a better issue. That one who lowest among them is seated on the ground, looking upward, is William the Marquis, for whom Alessandria and her war make Monferrat and Canavese mourn.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VII, pg 64
VOCABULARY - The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
Augury, pg 29
divination from auspices or omens
Incontinence, pg 16
unable to contain or retain; lacking in moderation or self-control; unceasing or unrestrained
Opprobrious, pg 9
adj. Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive, Bringing disgrace; shameful or infamous
Repose, pg 10
To lie at rest; to rest. "Within a thicket Repose
Figuratively, to remain or abide restfully without anxiety or alarms. "It is upon these that the soul may Repose
To lie; recline; couch; rest; sleep; settle; lodge; abide
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