Quotes from Paradiso

Dante Alighieri ·  400 pages

Rating: (13.4K votes)


“Love, that moves the sun and the other stars”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Fate's arrow, when expected, travels slow.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso



“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“all things created have an order in themselves, and this begets the form that lets the universe resemble God.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“O grace abounding and allowing me to dare
to fix my gaze on the Eternal Light,
so deep my vision was consumed in it!

I saw how it contains within its depths
all things bound in a single book by love
of which creation is the scattered leaves:

how substance, accident, and their relation
were fused in such a way that what I now
describe is but a glimmer of that Light.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“O you, who in some pretty boat,
Eager to listen, have been following
Behind my ship, that singing sails along

Turn back to look again upon your own shores;
Tempt not the deep, lest unawares,
In losing me, you yourselves might be lost.

The sea I sail has never yet been passed;
Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,
And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.

You other few who have neck uplifted
Betimes to the bread of angels upon Which one lives and does not grow sated,

Well may you launch your vessel
Upon the deep sea.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“All Being within this order, by the laws
of its own nature is impelled to find
its proper station round its Primal Cause.

Thus every nature moves across the tide
of the great sea of being to its own port,
each with its given instinct as its guide.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso



“If you, free as you are of every weight
had stayed below, then that would be as strange
as living flame on earth remaining still."

And then she turned her gaze up toward the heavens.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Lady, you who are so great, so powerful,
that who seeks grace without recourse to you
would have his wish fly upward without wings.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“From a little spark may burst a flame.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“While the everlasting pleasure, that did full On Beatrice shine, with second view From her fair countenance my gladden'd soul Contented; vanquishing me with a beam Of her soft smile, she spake: "Turn thee, and list. These eyes are not thy only Paradise.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“O virgin mother, daughter of thy Son,
humble beyond all creatures and more exalted;
predestined turning point of God's intention;

Thy merit so ennobled human nature
that its divine Creator did not scorn
to make Himself the creature of His creature.

The Love that was rekindled in Thy womb
sends for the warmth of the eternal peace
within whose ray this flower has come to bloom.

Here to us, thou art the noon and scope
of Love revealed; and among mortal men,
the living fountain of eternal hope.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso



“God's greatest gift to man
In all the bounty He was moved to make
Throughout creation-the one gift the most
Close to his goodness and the one He calls
Most precious-is free will.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Great fire can follow a small spark: there may be better voices after me to pray to Cyrrha's god for aid - that he may answer.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“And what will bow your shoulders down
will be the vicious and worthless company
with whom you will fall into this abyss.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“the Love that moves the sun and all the other stars.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Whoso laments, that we must doff this garb
Of frail mortality, thenceforth to live
Immortally above, he hath not seen
The sweet refreshing, of that heav’nly shower.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso



“«L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle»”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“...Because the sacred fire that lights all nature liveliest of all in its own image glows. All these prerogatives the human creature possesses, and if one of them should fail, he must diminish from his noble stature. Sin only can disenfranchise him, and veil his likeness to the Highest Good; whereby the light in him is lessened and grows pale. Ne'er can he win back dignities so high till the void made by guilt be all filled in with just amends paid for by illicit joy. Now, when your nature as a whole did sin in its first root, it lost these great awards, and lost the Eden of its origin; nor might they be recovered afterwards by any means, as if thou search thou'lt see, except by crossing one of these two fords; either must God, of his sole courtesy, remit, or man must pay with all that's his, the debt of sin in its entirety. Within the Eternal Counsel's deep abyss rivet thine eye, and with a heed as good as thou canst give me, do thou follow this. Man from his finite assets never could make satisfaction; ne'er could he abase him so low, obey thereafter all he would, as he'd by disobedience sought to raise him; and for this cause man might not pay his due himself, nor from the debtor's roll erase him. Needs then must God, by his own ways, renew man's proper life, and reinstate him so; his ways I say - by one, or both of two. And since the doer's actions ever show more gracious as the style of them makes plain the goodness of the heart from which they flow, that most high Goodness which is God was fain - even God, whose impress Heaven and earth display - by all His ways to lift you up again; nor, between final night and primal day, was e'er proceeding so majestical and high, nor shall not be, by either way; for God's self-giving, which made possible that man should raise himself, showed more largesse than if by naked power He'd cancelled all; and every other means would have been less than justice, if it had not pleased God's Son to be humiliate in fleshliness.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“These are the radiancies of the perfected vision that sees the good and step by step moves nearer what it sees.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Well do I see how the Eternal Ray, which, once seen, kindles love forevermore, already shines on you. If on your way some other thing seduce your love, my brother, it can only be a trace, misunderstood, of this, which you see shining through the other.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Open your mind to what I shall explain, then close around it, for it is no learning to understand what one does not retain.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso



“ Se mala cupidigia altro vi grida, uomini siate, e non pecore matte,”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“God is the love that moves the sun and stars.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Behave like men, and not like witless sheep...”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


“Open thy mind; take in what I explain and keep it there; because to understand is not to know, if thou dost not retain...”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Paradiso


About the author

Dante Alighieri
Born place: in Florence, Italy
Born date May 14, 1265
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“He leaned close and breathed in her ear, "You will be the lady dearest and most dreadful."

For a moment, she almost felt the wind of the Great Forest in her hair.”
― Rosamund Hodge, quote from Crimson Bound


“(Unfortunately for Ben and Granny, it turns out that ancient poo does still pong.) After”
― David Walliams, quote from Gangsta Granny


“It is part of the received doctrine of modern biography that all characters are Flawed, and as a Christian priest I am quite ready to agree, but the Flaws the biographers exhibited usually meant that the person under discussion had not seen eye to eye with the biographer on matters of politics, or social betterment, or something impersonal.”
― Robertson Davies, quote from The Rebel Angels


“Fall for me, Aimee. I’ll catch you. Let go, baby.”
― Kerry Lonsdale, quote from Everything We Keep


“– Думаю, нужно быть писателем, когда в голове столько безумных идей и историй. А то лопнешь, если их не запишешь.”
― Jonathan Carroll, quote from The Land of Laughs


Interesting books

Emotionally Weird
(5.6K)
Emotionally Weird
by Kate Atkinson
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
(28.5K)
Tribes: We Need You...
by Seth Godin
The Pursuit of Happiness
(4.1K)
The Pursuit of Happi...
by Douglas Kennedy
Spud
(5.2K)
Spud
by John van de Ruit
Roadkill
(4.4K)
Roadkill
by Rob Thurman
Vampire Crush
(4.5K)
Vampire Crush
by A.M. Robinson

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.