Dante Alighieri

I saw within Its depth how It conceives_x000D_ _x000D_ All things in a single volume bound by Love_x000D_ _x000D_ of which the universe is the scattered leaves.

Before me things created were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come.

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.

Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.

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.

To get back up to the shining world from there My guide and I went into that hidden tunnel, And Following its path, we took no care To rest, but climbed: he first, then I-so far, through a round aperture I saw appear Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears, Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.

He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.

Still desiring, we live without hope.

Here let dead poetry rise once more to life.

In the midway of this our mortal life,_x000D_ _x000D_ I found me in a gloomy wood, astray,_x000D_ _x000D_ Gone from the path direct.

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.

For where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.

"The love of God, unutterable and perfect, flows into a pure soul the way light rushes into a transparent object. The more love that it finds, the more it gives itself: so that, as we grow clear and open, the more complete the joy of heaven is. And the more souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love, and, mirror like, each soul reflects the other.

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. [Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes]

e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle" ("and thence we came forth to see again the stars")

There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, and sand eddies in a whirlwind.

Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, seized me with pleasure of this man so strongly, that, as thou seest, it doth not yet desert me.

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.

The path to paradise begins in hell.