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.
Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the journey through suffering and despair that can lead to deeper understanding.
In this quote from Dante Alighieri, the speaker describes a passage that leads to a realm of suffering and lost souls, serving as a metaphor for the journey through life that often includes encountering pain and sorrow. It highlights the inevitability of facing challenges and the potential for growth and discovery that lies in the exploration of our darker experiences, suggesting that through acknowledging and confronting these aspects of existence, we can ultimately gain insight into the human condition.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is powerful for a speech on resilience in the face of adversity.
More from Dante Alighieri
All quotes βBefore 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.
Similar quotes
The organization controlling the material equipment of our everyday life is such that what in itself would enable us to construct it richly plunges us instead into a poverty of abundance, making alienation all the more intolerable as each convenience promises liberation and turns out to be only one more burden. We are condemned to slavery to the means of liberation.
After the earth dies, some 5 billion years from now, after it's burned to a crisp, or even swallowed by the Sun, there will be other worlds and stars and galaxies coming into being - and they will know nothing of a place once called Earth.
A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
I do not believe that true optimism can come about except through tragedy.
It was like letting go and falling back into water and seeing yourself grinning up through the water, your face like a mask, and seeing the bubbles coming up as if you were trying to speak from under the water. And how do you know what it's like to try to speak from under water when you're drowned?