WednesdayJan 07, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Avarice, envy, pride. Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all on Fire.
Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.
Art, as far as it can, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master; thus your art must be, as it were, God's grandchild.
Honour the greatest poet.
All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow which brings it forth, soon slays with parching power.
Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal.
Small projects need much more help than great.
There is no greater grief than to remember days of joy when misery is at hand.
The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the Bough, some of which go and others come.
And here Dante describes an evidently spherical world... 'The lamp of the world [the sun] rises to mortals through different passages; but through that which joins four circles with three crosses [the position of the rising sun at the vernal equinox] it issues with a better course and conjoined with better stars, and tempers and stamps the wax of the world more after its own fashion. Although such an outlet had made morning there and evening here, and all the hemisphere there was bright, and the other dark...'
The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crises, retained their neutrality.
A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.
The experience of this sweet life. L'esperienza de questa dolce vita.
A great flame follows a little spark.
The purpose of the whole (work) is to remove those who are living in this life from a state of wretchedness and lead them to the state of blessedness.
I was so full of sleep at the time that I left the true way.
Nature is the art of God.
For where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.
There is no greater sorrow Than to be mindful of the happy time In misery.
Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here
Here we see hypocrites, plodding forever around in their circle: And now we saw a people decked with paint, Who trod their circling way with tear and groan And slow, slow steps, seeming subdued and faint They all wore cloaks, with deep hoods forward thrown Over their eyes, and shaped in fashion quite Like the great cowls the monks wear at Cologne; Outwardly they were gilded dazzling bright, But all within was lead, and weighed thereby, King Frederick's copes would have seemed feather-light. O weary mantle for eternity! Once more we turned to the left, and by their side Paced on, intent upon their mournful cry.
They find seven cornices on which penitent and redeemed sinners are cleansed by the grace of God. On the first cornice, that of Pride, the proud are learning humility: Our Father, dwelling in the Heavens, nowise As circumscribed, but as the things above,
For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?
He listens well who takes notes.
If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.
Pride, envy, avarice these are the sparks have set on fire the souls of man.
From a little spark may burst a mighty flame.
Be steadfast as a tower that doth not bend Its stately summit to the tempests shock.
In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.
Here we find the moat of thieves. And just as a lizard, with a quick, slick slither, Flicks across the highway from hedge to hedge, Fleeter than a flash, in the battering dog-day weather, A fiery little monster, livid, in a rage, Black as any peppercorn, came and made a dart At the guts of the others, and leaping to engage One of the pair, it pierced him at the part Through which we first draw food; then loosed its grip And fell before him, outstretched and apart.
I love to doubt as well as know.
Consider your origins: you were not made that you might live as brutes, but so as to follow virtue and knowledge.
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