“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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?”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Justice does not descend from its own pinnacle.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“This mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“The weapons of divine justice are blunted by the confession and sorrow of the offender.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Haste denies all acts their dignity.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“how short a time the fire of love endures in woman
if frequent sight and touch do not rekindle it.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“He who best discerns the worth of time is most distressed whenever time is lost.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“My son,
Here may indeed be torment, but not death.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“High justice would in no way be debased
if ardent love should cancel instantly
the debts these penitents must satisfy.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Dianzi, ne l’alba che procede al giorno,
quando l’anima tua dentro dormia”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“[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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Io ritornai da la santissima onda
rifatto sì come piante novelle
rinnovellate di novella fronda,
puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“…I am left with less
than one drop of my blood that does not tremble.
I recognize the the signs of the old flame.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Et la faccia del sol noscere ombrata....”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“O Virgins, sacrosanct, if I have ever, for your sake, suffered vigils,cold,, and hunger, great need makes me entreat my recompense.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“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.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
“Come, quando i vapori umidi e spessi
A diradar cominciansi, la spera
Del sol debilemente entra per essi....”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri
Born place: in Florence, Italy
Born date May 14, 1265
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“And you, Sarah Jacobi”—he pointed to a woman with white robes and spiky black hair—“you were sent to Antarctica for causing the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Kane Chronicles
“Sounds like you still need to learn the parts of a woman, Pick said. Next time you guys are together, don't be afraid to explore. She won't mind. If you're touching, licking, kissing, and nibbling on every little place you go, she'll actually appreciate it. Trust me. Get down there at eye level with everything and just . . . look around. Test it out with your tongue. She'll let you know what she does and doesn't like.”
― Linda Kage, quote from Be My Hero
“With genius, as with beauty -- all, well almost all, is forgiven.”
― Susan Sontag, quote from The Volcano Lover: A Romance
“...Sabina [was] onto something about mehendi not being tantamount to temporary tattoo, and how it's been appropriated by Western capitalist culture. But the mehendi originated in Africa, and so India appropriated it from a people of color as well, according to Upma, and thus we shouldn't wear jeans or listen to Queen, then. But Freddie Mercury was Indian, Sabina pointed out, Parsi, and plus, half of these things are made in India anyways if you check the tags. Somehow eventually arriving at: Whatever it was, why did a white girl have to wear it before it was regarded as cool?”
― Tanuja Desai Hidier, quote from Born Confused
“Before Elfrida Phipps left London for good and moved to the country, she made a trip to Battersea Dogs' Home, and returned with a canine companion. It took a good, and heart-rending, half hour of searching, but as soon as she saw him, sitting very close to the bars of his kennel and gazing up at her with dark and melting eyes, she knew he was the one. She did not want a large animal, nor did she relish the idea of a yapping lap dog. This one was exactly the right size. Dog size.”
― Rosamunde Pilcher, quote from Winter Solstice
The Virgin's Lover
The Ten-Year Nap
The Moth Diaries
Progress and Poverty
Descent into Hell
The Tetherballs of B...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.
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