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Dante Alighieri Quotes
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105 Quotes Revealing the Timeless Wisdom and Profound Insights of a Great Poet

Delve into the profound words of Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets in history. Explore his captivating quotes, from the beauty of nature to the journey of the soul through heaven and hell. Discover the depth of his wisdom and the timeless relevance of his insights.

Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher, is known for his influential work, the Divine Comedy. He played a significant role in establishing the use of the vernacular in literature, shifting from Latin to the Florentine dialect. This helped establish Italian as a literary language in Western Europe for centuries. Dante's depiction of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven inspired Western art and literature and influenced renowned English writers like Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton. He is considered the "father" of Italian language and is among Italy's national poets.

Born in Florence around 1265, Dante came from a family loyal to the Guelphs, a political alliance supporting the Papacy. His mother passed away when he was young, and his father remarried. Dante claimed to have fallen in love with Beatrice Portinari at first sight but was eventually married to Gemma Donati. Despite his marriage, he remained infatuated with Beatrice throughout his life. Dante participated in public life by joining the Physicians' and Apothecaries' Guild and was involved in Florentine politics during certain periods. However, much of his participation is uncertain due to missing historical records.

✵ 30. May 1265 – 14. September 1321
Dante Alighieri photo
Dante Alighieri: 105   quotes 233   likes

Dante Alighieri Quotes

“Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XXXIII, line 145 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Star

“For always the man in whom thought springs up over thought sets his mark farther off, for the one thought saps the force of the other.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto V, lines 16–18 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Spring

“At once I understood,
and I was sure this was that sect of evil souls who were
hateful to God and to His enemies.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto III, lines 61–63 (tr. Mark Musa).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

God , Hate , Soul , Evil

“With the colour that paints the morning and evening clouds that face the sun I saw then the whole heaven suffused.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto XXVII, lines 28–30 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

Sun , Painting

“No and Yes within my head contend.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto VIII, lines 111 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“Day was departing, and the embrowned air
Released the animals that are on earth
From their fatigues.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto II, lines 1–3 (tr. Longfellow)
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Animals

“I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
Who made through cowardice the great refusal.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto III, lines 59–60 (tr. Longfellow).
The decision of Pope Celestine V to abdicate the Papacy and allow Dante's enemy, Pope Boniface VIII, to gain power.
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“A great flame follows a little spark.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto I, line 34 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Henry Powell Spring in 1944; popularized by John F. Kennedy misquoting Dante (24 June 1963) http://www.bartleby.com/73/1211.html. Dante placed those who "non furon ribelli né fur fedeli" [were neither for nor against God] in a special region near the mouth of Hell; the lowest part of Hell, a lake of ice, was for traitors.
According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx President Kennedy got his facts wrong. Dante never made this statement. The closest to what President Kennedy meant is in the Inferno where the souls in the ante-room of hell, who "lived without disgrace and without praise," and the coward angels, who did not rebel but did not resist the cohorts of Lucifer, are condemned to continually chase a banner that is forever changing course while being stung by wasps and horseflies.
See Canticle I (Inferno), Canto 3, vv 35-42 for the notion of neutrality and where JFK might have paraphrased from.
Misattributed

Hell , Time

“He listens well who takes notes.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XV, line 99 (tr. Clive James).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“I wept not, I within so turned to stone.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXXIII, line 49 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“Love, which is quickly kindled in the gentle heart,
seized this man for the fair form that was
taken from me, and the manner afflicts me still.
Love, which absolves no one beloved from loving,
seized me so strongly with his charm
that, as thou seest, it does not leave me yet.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto V, lines 100–105 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Love , Affliction , Heart

“The sword above here smiteth not in haste
Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him
Who fearing or desiring waits for it.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto XXII, lines 16–18 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

Fear , Waiting

“By its seed each herb is recognized.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XVI, line 114 (tr. Longfellow).
Compare: "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Matthew 7:16 KJV.
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

“Weeping itself there does not let them weep,
And grief that finds a barrier in the eyes
Turns itself inward to increase the anguish.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXXIII, lines 94–96 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“Each one confusedly a good conceives
Wherein the mind may rest, and longeth for it;
Therefore to overtake it each one strives.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XVII, lines 127–129 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

“Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens;
I come to lead you to the other shore,
To the eternal shades in heat and frost.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto III, lines 85–87 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Hope

“Give us this day the daily manna, without which, in this rough desert, he backward goes, who toils most to go on.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XI, lines 13–15 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

“For all the gold that is beneath the moon,
Or ever has been, of these weary souls
Could never make a single one repose.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto VII, lines 64–66 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Soul

“Less than a drop of blood remains in me that does not tremble; I recognize the signals of the ancient flame.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XXX, lines 46–48.
Compare: Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae ("I feel once more the scars of the old flame", tr. C. Day Lewis), Virgil, Aeneid, Book IV, line 23.
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

“O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is little fault!”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto III, lines 8–9 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

“Love hath so long possessed me for his own
And made his lordship so familiar.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Sì lungiamente m'ha tenuto Amore
e costumato a la sua segnoria
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XXIV

Love

“Virtue with poverty didst thou prefer
To the possession of great wealth with vice.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XX, lines 26–27 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Wealth

“This miserable state
is borne by the wretched souls of those
who lived without disgrace and without praise.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto III, lines 34–36 (tr. John D. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Soul

“When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto I, lines 1–3 (tr. Mandelbaum).
Longfellow's translation:
: Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straight-forward pathway had been lost.
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Life , Way

“I saw within Its depth how It conceives
all things in a single volume bound by Love,
of which the universe is the scattered leaves.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto XXXIII, lines 85–87 (tr. Ciardi).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

Love , Universe

“To be rude to him was courtesy.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXXIII, line 150 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

“How long in woman lasts the fire of love,
If eye or touch do not relight it often.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto VIII, lines 77–78 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love

“O Sun, that healest all distempered vision,
Thou dost content me so, when thou resolvest,
That doubting pleases me no less than knowing!”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XI, lines 91–93 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Sun

“And his will is our peace; this is the sea
To which is moving onward whatsoever
It doth create, and all that nature makes.”

Dante Alighieri book Paradiso

Canto III, lines 85–87 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

Peace , Nature , Sea

“Time moves and yet we do not notice it.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto IV, line 9 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Time

“For to lose time irks him most who most knows.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto III, line 78 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Time

“Necessity brings him here, not pleasure.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XII, line 87 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Pleasure

“A thing done has an end!”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXVIII, line 107 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno