“Thus you may understand that love alone
is the true seed of every merit in you,
and of all acts for which you must atone.”
“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.”
“Perceive ye not that we are worms, designed
To form the angelic butterfly, that goes
To judgment, leaving all defence behind?
Why doth your mind take such exalted pose,
Since ye, disabled, are as insects, mean
As worm which never transformation knows?”
“Justice does not descend from its own pinnacle.”
“This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.”
“The weapons of divine justice are blunted by the confession and sorrow of the offender.”
“Haste denies all acts their dignity.”
“To course across more kindly waters now
my talent's little vessel lifts her sails,
leaving behind herself a sea so cruel;
and what I sing will be that second kingdom,
in which the human soul is cleansed of sin,
becoming worthy of ascent to Heaven.”
“Madness it is to hope that human minds
can ever understand the Infinite
that comprehends Three Persons in One Being.
Be satisfied with quia unexplained,
O Human race! If you knew everything,
no need for Mary to have borne a son.”
“My son, you've seen the temporary fire
and the eternal fire; you have reached
the place past which my powers cannot see.
I've brought you here through intellect and art;
from now on, let your pleasure be your guide;
you're past the steep and past the narrow paths.
Look at the sun that shines upon your brow;
look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs
born here, spontaneously, of the earth.
Among them, you can rest or walk until
the coming of the glad and lovely eyes--
those eyes that weeping, sent me to your side.
Await no further word or sign from me:
your will is free, erect, and whole-- to act
against that will would be to err: therefore
I crown and miter you over yourself”
“how short a time the fire of love endures in woman
if frequent sight and touch do not rekindle it.”
“He who best discerns the worth of time is most distressed whenever time is lost.”
“Soft as the early morning breeze of May,
which heralds dawn, rich with the grass and flowers,
spreading in waves their breathing fragrances,
I felt a breeze strike soft upon my brow:
I felt a wing caress it, I am sure,
I sensed the sweetness of ambrosia.”
“My son,
Here may indeed be torment, but not death.”
“That infinite and indescribable good
which is there above races as swiftly
to love as a ray of light to a bright body.
It gives of itself according to the ardor
it finds, so that as charity spreads farther
the eternal good increases upon it,
and the more souls there are who love, up there,
the more there are to love well, and the more love
they reflect to each other, as in a mirror.”
“High justice would in no way be debased
if ardent love should cancel instantly
the debts these penitents must satisfy.”
“Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde”
“It is arguable that when Humanists, "Shook off," as people say, "the trammels of religion," and discovered things of this world as objects of veneration in their own right... they began to lose the finer appreciation of even the world itself. Thus to the Christian centuries, the flesh was holy (or sacer at least in one sense or the other), and they veiled its awful majesty; to the Humanist centuries it was divine in its own right, and they exhibited it. Now it is the commonplace of the magazine cover. It has lost its numen. So too with the cult of knowledge for its own sake declining from the Revival of Learning to the Brains Trust.”
“Dianzi, ne l’alba che procede al giorno,
quando l’anima tua dentro dormia”
“True love is never lost, not even by a bishop's or a priest's curse, that we cannot regain it, so long as hope has still its bit of green.”
“[on Purgatory] It is, of course, open to anyone to say that the whole idea is morbid and exaggerated--open even to those who think nothing of queuing for twenty-four hours in acute discomfort to see the first night of a musical comedy, which lasts three hours at most, which they are not sure of liking when they get there, and which they could see any other night with no trouble at all.”
“He, in his love songs, and his tales in prose,
was without peer--and if fools claim Limoges
produced a better, there are always those
who measure worth by popular acclaim,
ignoring principles of art and reason
to base their judgments on the author's name.”
“Io ritornai da la santissima onda
rifatto sì come piante novelle
rinnovellate di novella fronda,
puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.”
“Mă-ntorsei, deci, de la pârâul sfânt
ca nou, asemeni plantei tinerele
când nouă crește-n noul său vestmânt,
curat și gata să mă urc la stele.”
“…I am left with less
than one drop of my blood that does not tremble.
I recognize the the signs of the old flame.”
“Et la faccia del sol noscere ombrata....”
“O Virgins, sacrosanct, if I have ever, for your sake, suffered vigils,cold,, and hunger, great need makes me entreat my recompense.”
“Speak," said my Master, "and be not afraid Of speaking, but speak out, and say to him What he demands with such solicitude." Whence I: "Thou peradventure marvellest, O antique spirit, at the smile I gave; But I will have more wonder seize upon thee. This one, who guides on high these eyes of mine, Is that Virgilius, from whom thou didst learn To sing aloud of men and of the Gods. If other cause thou to my smile imputedst, Abandon it as false, and trust it was Those words which thou hast spoken concerning him." Already he was stooping to embrace My Teacher's feet; but he said to him: "Brother, Do not; for shade thou art, and shade beholdest." And he uprising: "Now canst thou the sum Of love which warms me to thee comprehend, When this our vanity I disremember, Treating a shadow as substantial thing.”
“Come, quando i vapori umidi e spessi
A diradar cominciansi, la spera
Del sol debilemente entra per essi....”
“No ticket ripper should say anything, but if you do happen to get caught you can always pretend you’re diabetic. “Honestly, these are prescription Pop Rocks.”
“Being a geological formation gives you a lot of time to think. Also, I subscribed to a number of learned journals.”
“He had compared the taxation to a form of slavery and had encouraged his fellow Jews to rise up against their oppressors.”
“I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your imagination, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart..."She began to really lose it. "...has ever longed... for.”
“What counts, I found, is not what you cover, but what you uncover. Covering subjects in a class can be a boring exercise, and students feel it. Uncovering the laws of physics and making them see through the equations, on the other hand, demonstrates the process of discovery, with all its newness and excitement, and students love being part of it.”
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