Dante Alighieri: Quotes about heart

“Pride, Envy, and Avarice are
the three sparks that have set these hearts on fire.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto VI, lines 74–75 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Heart , Envy

“In his arms, my lady lay asleep, wrapped in a veil.
He woke her then and trembling and obedient
She ate that burning heart out of his hand;
Weeping I saw him then depart from me.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

ne le braccia avea
madonna involta in un drappo dormendo.
Poi la svegliava, e d'esto core ardendo
lei paventosa umilmente pascea:
appresso gir lo ne vedea piangendo.
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter I, First Sonnet (tr. Mark Musa)

Heart

“The dames and cavaliers, the toils and ease
That filled our souls with love and courtesy,
There where the hearts have so malicious grown!”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto XIV, lines 109–111 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love , Soul , Heart

“Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
that maketh excrement of what is eaten.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXVIII, lines 25–27 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Heart

“It was now the hour that turns back the longing of seafarers and melts their heart the day they have bidden dear friends farewell and pierces the new traveller with love if he hears in the distance the bell that seems to mourn the dying day.”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto VIII, lines 1–6 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Love , Travel , Heart

“Love and the gracious heart are a single thing…
one can no more be without the other
than the reasoning mind without its reason.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Amore e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa...
e così esser l'un sanza l'altro osa
com'alma razional sanza ragione.
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XVI (tr. Mark Musa)

Love , Heart

“Unless, before then, the prayer assist me which rises from a heart that lives in grace: what avails the other, which is not heard in heaven?”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto IV, lines 133–135 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Heart

“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

“And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off, should show, it would be nothing to compare with the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia. A cask by losing centre-piece or cant was never shattered so, as I saw one rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind. Between his legs were hanging down his entrails; his heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten. While I was all absorbed in seeing him, he looked at me, and opened with his hands his bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me; How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; in front of me doth Ali weeping go, cleft in the face from forelock unto chin; and all the others whom thou here beholdest, disseminators of scandal and of schism while living were, and therefore are cleft thus.”

Dante Alighieri book Inferno

Canto XXVIII
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno