The Divine Comedy Quotes

“There above How many now hold themselves mighty kings Who here like swine shall wallow in the mire, Leaving behind them horrible dispraise!”

“This miserable fate Suffer the wretched souls of those, who liv’d Without or praise or blame, with that ill band Of angels mix’d, who nor rebellious prov’d Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves Were only.”

“Thy soul is by vile fear assail’d, which oft So overcasts a man, that he recoils From noblest resolution, like a beast At some false semblance in the twilight gloom.”

“As in large troops And multitudinous, when winter reigns, The starlings on their wings are borne abroad; So bears the tyrannous gust those evil souls. On this side and on that, above, below, It drives them: hope of rest to solace them Is none, nor e’en of milder pang.”

“Let not thy fear Harm thee, for power in him, be sure, is none To hinder down this rock thy safe descent.”

“The book and writer both Were love’s purveyors.”

“IN the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray.”

“These of death No hope may entertain: and their blind life So meanly passes, that all other lots They envy. Fame of them the world hath none, Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both. Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.”

“Heaven’s justice goads them on, that fear Is turn’d into desire.”

“Av’rice, envy, pride, Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all On fire.”

“And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring, From which such copious floods of eloquence Have issued?”

“No greater grief than to remember days Of joy, when mis’ry is at hand!”

“The carnal sinners are condemn’d, in whom Reason by lust is sway’d.”

“Oh, how long Me seems it, ere the promis’d help arrive!”

“I, if on this voyage then I venture, fear it will in folly end.”

“Though ne’er to true perfection may arrive This race accurs’d, yet nearer then than now They shall approach it.”

“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 mov’d: 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 endure. All hope abandon ye who enter here.”

“Eternal fire, That inward burns, shows them with ruddy flame Illum’d.”

“Not all the gold, that is beneath the moon, Or ever hath been, of these toil-worn souls Might purchase rest for one.”

“Assist him. So to me will comfort spring.”