“One day, to pass the time away, we read
of Lancelot—how love had overcome him.
We were alone, and we suspected nothing.
And time and time again that reading led
our eyes to meet, and made our faces pale,
and yet one point alone defeated us.
When we had read how the desired smile
was kissed by one who was so true a lover,
this one, who never shall be parted from me,
while all his body trembled, kissed my mouth.
A Gallehault indeed, that book and he
who wrote it, too; that day we read no more.”

—  Dante Alighieri, book Inferno

Canto V, lines 127–138 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "One day, to pass the time away, we read of Lancelot—how love had overcome him. We were alone, and we suspected nothin…" by Dante Alighieri?
Dante Alighieri photo
Dante Alighieri105
Italian poet 1265–1321

Related quotes

“And how often do we meet the man who prefaces his remarks with: "I was reading a book last night…" in the too loud, overenunciated fashion of one who might be saying: "I keep a hippogryph in my basement."”

Robertson Davies book A Voice from the Attic

Reading confers status.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)

Italo Calvino photo

“Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combinatoria of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined?”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

John Adams photo

“I read my eyes out and can't read half enough. … The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Letter to Abigail Adams (28 December 1794), Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society
1790s
Source: Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

Robert Maynard Hutchins photo

“If many great books seem unreadable and unintelligible … it may be because we have not for a long time learned to read by reading them. Great books teach people not only how to read them, but how to read all other books.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

Gabrielle Zevin photo

“The words you can't find, you borrow.
We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

“I no more wrote than read that book which is
The self I am, half hidden as it is
From one and all who see within a kiss
The lounging formless blackness of an abyss. How could I think the brief years were enough
To prove the reality of endless love?”

Delmore Schwartz (1913–1966) American poet

"I am a Book I neither Wrote nor Read"
Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge (1959)

Albert Barnes photo

“When we come to die, we shall be alone. From all our worldly possessions we shall be about to part. Worldly friends — the friends drawn to us by our position, our wealth, or our social qualities, — will leave us as we enter the dark valley. From those bound to us by stronger ties — our kindred, our loved ones, children, brothers, sisters, and from those not less dear to us who have been made our friends because they and we are the friends of the same Saviour, — from them also we must part. Yet not all will leave us. There is One who "sticketh closer than a brother"”

Albert Barnes (1798–1870) American theologian

One who having loved His own which are in the world loves them to the end.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 176.

Oliver Goldsmith photo

“The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith

Milorad Pavić photo

“When we read, it is not ours to absorb all that is written. Our thoughts are jealous and they constantly blank out the thoughts of others, for there is not room enough in us for two scents at one time.”

Milorad Pavić (1929–2009) Serbian writer

Source: Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel in 100,000 Words

Related topics