“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

Original

La spada di qua sù non taglia in fretta né tardo, ma' ch'al parer di colui che disïando o temendo l'aspetta.

The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Paradiso

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 "The sword above here smiteth not in haste Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him Who fearing or desiring waits for it." by Dante Alighieri?
Dante Alighieri photo
Dante Alighieri 105
Italian poet 1265–1321

Related quotes

“There comes a time when a men desires to rise above fear.”

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

The cloud walker (1973)

Kate Bush photo

“"Don't you know you've kept him waiting?"
"Look who's here to see you!"”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Hounds of Love (1985), The Ninth Wave

“Those who do not fear the sword they wield have no right to wield a sword at all.
~Shuhei Hisagi”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Variant: He who does not fear the sword he holds is not worthy of holding a sword.
-Hisagi Shuuhei

Thomas Hobbes photo

“For there is no such thing as perpetual Tranquility of mind, while we live here; because Life it selfe is but Motion, and can never be without Desire, nor without Feare, no more than without Sense.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 6, p. 29 (See also: Rene Girard)
Leviathan (1651)

Erik Axel Karlfeldt photo

“It whispers; all is waiting here
Kept safe for thee, year after year,
Beautiful songs in thousands;
Where hast thou been, where, where?”

Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864–1931) Swedish poet

Attributed in Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, tr. Leif Sjoberg and W. H. Auden (1964), journal entry for (October 1, 1957).

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“Zealousness to learn from life is seldom found, but all the more frequently a desire, inclination, and reciprocal haste to be deceived by life. Undaunted, people do not seem to have a Socratic fear of being deceived, for the voice of God is always a whisper, while the demand of the age is a thousand-tongued rumor, not an all-powerful call that creates great men but a stirring in the offal that creates confused pates, an abracadabra that produces after its kind as is the case with all production. Even less do people seem to have above all a Socratic fear of being deceived by themselves, do not seem to be the least aware that if the self-deceived are the most miserable of all, then among these, again, the most miserable are those who are presumptuously deceived by themselves in contrast to those who are piously deceived.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Two Ages: The Age of Revolution and the Present Age. A Literary Review. By Soren Kierkegaard, 1846 edited and translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong 1978 Princeton University Press P. 10
1840s, Two Ages: A Literary Review (1846)

John Locke photo

“The next thing is by gentle degrees to accustom children to those things they are too much afraid of. But here great caution is to be used, that you do not make too much haste, nor attempt this cure too early, for fear lest you increase the mischief instead of remedying it.”

John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 115
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“Who holds a sword is tempted, who has youth must play,
he who does not fear death on earth does not fear God.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Odysseus, Book VIII, line 560
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)

Eric Hoffer photo

“Exceptional intelligence, noble character and originality seem neither indispensable nor perhaps desirable.”

Eric Hoffer book The True Believer

The main requirements seem to be: audacity and a joy in defiance; an iron will; a fanatical conviction that he is in possession of the one and only truth; faith in his destiny and luck; a capacity for passionate hatred; contempt for the present; a cunning estimate of human nature; a delight in symbols (spectacles and ceremonials); unbounded brazenness which finds expression in a disregard of consistency and fairness; a recognition that the innermost craving of a following is for communion and that there can never be too much of it; a capacity for winning and holding the utmost loyalty of a group of able lieutenants. This last faculty is one of the most essential and elusive.
Section 90
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice

Related topics