O foolish anxiety of wretched man, how inconclusive are the arguments which make thee beat thy wings below!
Go right on and listen as thou goest.
O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?
A prayer may chance to rise From one whose heart lives in the grace of God. A prayer from any other is unheeded.
So may heaven’s grace clear away the foam from the conscience, that the river of thy thoughts may roll limpid thenceforth.
Consider the sea’s listless chime: Time’s self it is, made audible.
My soul tasted that heavenly food, which gives new appetite while it satiates.
There is in hell a place stone-built throughout, Called Malebolge, of an iron hue, Like to the wall that circles it about.
Come, follow me, and leave the world to its babblings.
I am searching for that which every man seeks-peace and rest.
The splendors that belong unto the fame of earth are but a wind, that in the same direction lasts not long.
Seldom indeed does human virtue rise From trunk to branch.
The only fit reply to a fit request is silence and the fact.
Give unto us this day the daily manna Without which, in this desert where we dwell, He must go backward who would most advance.
O faithful conscience, delicately pure, how doth a little failing wound thee sore!
We are but a day in this world, and in that day the fashion is changed a thousand times: all seek liberty, yet all deprive themselves of it.
Love is the source of every virtue in you and of every deed which deserves punishment.
Less shame a greater fault would palliate.
It is necessity and not pleasure that compels us.
Reason flies When following the senses, on clipped wings.