Divine Comedy Quotes

“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

“If you lead me astray, then my wanderings will bring me to my destination.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona,
mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona.”
― Dante

“Come on, shake off the covers of this sloth, for sitting softly cushioned, or tucked in bed, is no way to win fame.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

“Non isperate mai veder lo cielo:
i’ vegno per menarvi a l’altra riva
ne le tenebre etterne, in caldo e ’n gelo.”
― Dante, Inferno

“A l'alta fantasia qui mancò possa;
ma già volgeva il mio disio e'l velle
sì come rota ch'igualmente è mossa,
l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.”
― Dante Alighieri

“To neglect ones own ability to laugh is the greatest form of Blasphemy, for to laugh is to pray.”
― Ilyas Kassam

“Thy soul is by vile fear assailed”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

“It’s not by accident that people talk of a state of confusion as not being able to see the wood for the trees, or of being out of the woods when some crisis is surmopunted. It is a place of loss, confusion, terror and anger, a place where you can, like Dante, find yourself going down into Hell. But if it’s any comfort, the dark wood isn’t just that. It’s also a place of opportunity and adventure. It is the place in which fortunes can be reversed, hearts mended, hopes reborn.”
― Amanda Craig

“To believers, the bible is a holy book, to unbelievers, it is a story book.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“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.”
― Dante Alighieri

“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

“Dolce color d’oriental zaffiro,
che s’accoglieva nel sereno aspetto
del mezzo, puro infino al primo giro,

a li occhi miei ricominciò diletto,
tosto ch’io usci’ fuor de l’aura morta
che m’avea contristati li occhi e ‘l petto.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2: Purgatorio

“Ed ecco verso noi venir per nave
un vecchio, bianco per antico pelo,
gridando: "Guai a voi, anime prave!
Non isperate mai veder lo cielo:
i’ vegno per menarvi a l’altra riva
ne le tenebre etterne, in caldo e ’n gelo.
E tu che se’ costì, anima viva,
pàrtiti da cotesti che son morti".
Ma poi che vide ch’io non mi partiva,
disse: "Per altra via, per altri porti
verrai a piaggia, non qui, per passare:
più lieve legno convien che ti porti".
E ’l duca lui: "Caron, non ti crucciare:
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare".
Quinci fuor quete le lanose gote
al nocchier de la livida palude,
che ’ntorno a li occhi avea di fiamme rote.
Ma quell’anime, ch’eran lasse e nude,
cangiar colore e dibattero i denti,
ratto che ’nteser le parole crude.
Bestemmiavano Dio e lor parenti,
l’umana spezie e ’l loco e ’l tempo e ’l seme
di lor semenza e di lor nascimenti.
Poi si ritrasser tutte quante insieme,
forte piangendo, a la riva malvagia
ch’attende ciascun uom che Dio non teme.
Caron dimonio, con occhi di bragia
loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie;
batte col remo qualunque s'adagia.
Come d’autunno si levan le foglie
l’una appresso de l’altra, fin che ’l ramo
vede a la terra tutte le sue spoglie,
similemente il mal seme d’Adamo
gittansi di quel lito ad una ad una,
per cenni come augel per suo richiamo.
Così sen vanno su per l’onda bruna,
e avanti che sien di là discese,
anche di qua nuova schiera s’auna.”
― Dante Alighieri

“Midtveges fram i gonga gjennom livet, eg fann meg att i tjukke svarte skogen, i vilska fór eg langt frå rette vegen.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

“lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate"
آنکه پا از این در به درون میگذاری دست از هر امیدی بشوی”
― Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia

“When I had journeyed half of our life’s way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.”
― Dante Alighieri

“Everyone loves a comedy, my dear. It is divine.”
― Rawi Hage, Carnival

“perhaps the greatest poem ever written”
― Rod Dreher

“The devil is not as black as he is painted.” -Dante”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

“But when thou shalt be in the sweet world, I pray thee recall me to the memory of men; more I tell thee not, and more I answer not.”
― Dante Alighieri, By Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory (Penguin Classics) (v. 2)

“O Simon Magus! O wretched followers of his and robbers ye, who prostitute the things of God, that should be wedded unto righteousness, for gold and silver! now must the trump sound for you: for ye are in the third chasm.”
― Dante Alighieri

“...It is the one time Dante calls such explicit attention to the idea of contrapasso-a word for which we have no exact translation, no precise definition in English, because the word in itself is its definition... Well, my dear Longfellow, I would say countersuffering ... the notion that each sinner must be punished by continuing the damage of his own sin against him... just as these Schismatics are cut apart...”
― Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club

“No, never mind, I didn't think so. Mead, Dante's theme is man-not a man.' Lowell said finally with a mild patience that he reserved only for students. "The Italians forever twitch at Dante's sleeves trying to make him say he is of their politics and their way of thinking. Their way indeed! To confine it to Florence or Italy is to banish it from the sympathies of mankind. We read Paradise Lost as a poem but Dante's Comedy as a chronicle of our inner lives. Do you boys know of Isaiah 38:10”
― Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." It's a little bit on the nose, wouldn't you say, when they hang this big old sign above the entrance to Hell, the land of eternal damnation, telling you, "give up, it doesn't get better"? I'd imagine a human soul with an eternity of torture every moment of every day for the remainder of their existence would see this sign and think, "Yeah. No shit, Sherlock." Which means it's perfect.”
― Peter Fenton, Abandon All Hope

“The Divine Comedy brings together the whole sprawling welter of medieval contradictions about Rome and declares them pages in a single story: the Rome of the Aeneid is the Rome of Acts; the Rome of Caesars, the Rome of martyrs, the Rome of Minerva, the Rome of Mary; Rome, the Great Whore of Babylon (in Revelation), and Rome, the triumphant New Jerusalem.”
― John T. Spike, Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine

“If I must recall each breath's dance,
Like heart's steady beat in life's expanse.
Just like my pulse, am I but a part?
Serving life's rhythm, making this art.
Woven together, skillfully entwined
Am I but a thread, in this grand design?”
― Amogh Swamy, On My Way To Infinity: A Seeker's Poetic Pilgrimage

“Dante's path can be understood as a metaphor for the condition of medieval man, before the advent of the Renaissance: in a state of sin (Hell), passing through sincere repentance and forgiveness (Purgatory), and finally reaching communion with the fullness of the divine (Paradise). It is a search for truth through faith. Initially, the poet relies on the help of Virgil, a representative of classical pagan culture, and then follows the guidance of true love and holiness, which lead him to the very essence of the divine. This journey is not limited to the search for true love, although this is, naturally, the initial motivation. True love is transmuted into Divine Grace, which, through the contemplation of love and beauty, grants the poet a reflection of divine perfection. Human reason leads the soul to the threshold of faith, where Beatrice, the personification of divine love, takes over. In modern times, the path would be analogous, but the object of love would become reason. The search for truth would then be carried out through rational means. From ignorance (the “dark forest”), through reflection and the practice of virtues, man would arrive at knowledge, so that reason would guide him to the supreme truth. Both in the Middle Ages and in later periods, the search for the meaning of the absolute continued, whether through perfect faith or perfect reason.”
― Geverson Ampolini