Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was the greatest of Italian poets. His Divine Comedy is one of the most revered and influential literary works in history.
A native of Florence, Dante sought solace in philosophy after the death in 1290 of his lover Beatrice Portinari, the wife of a painter.
Active in Florentine political life during the autonomous city-state’s conflict with the Holy Roman Empire, Dante was sent to the papal court as an emissary in 1301, and, while absent, was sentenced to exile. He never returned to Florence and died an honored guest of Guido da Polenta, the ruler of Ravenna.
Dante’s principal conventional philosophical work is the Convivio (Banquet; 1304–08,) planned as a series of fourteen treatises of which only four are completed. De Monarchia (Monarchy; 1313) covered Dante’s political theory, which proposes the separation of church and state.
Dante wrote his masterpiece, the Divina Commedia (originally Commedia; ‘Divina‘ was added to its title in the 16th century,) between 1308 and 1321, and finished just before his death. Commedia is recognized as the literary embodiment of the ethical, spiritual, and philosophical ideals of the Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance.
As a poem in 3 parts and 100 Cantos, Commedia takes the structure of a moral allegory of a soul’s struggle towards redemption. Dante’s voyage takes him through the three regions of the Christian cosmology: hell, purgatory, and heaven. Dante describes hell (Inferno) as an abyss of nine descending circles, beginning with limbo and ending in the frozen lake earmarked for conspirators. The second and third books (Purgatorio and Paradiso) portray the earthly paradise, ending in the beatific vision.
Dante’s vision of hell affected significant influence over European art, most prominently in the biblical illustrations of Sandro Botticelli and William Blake.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Dante Alighieri
There is no greater grief than to remember days of joy when misery is at hand.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Grief
From a little spark may burst a mighty flame.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: One Step at a Time, Greatness
The human race is in the best condition when it has the greatest degree of liberty.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Liberty
Justice divine has weighed: the doom is clear. All hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Hope
In His will is our peace.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: God
For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Action
This miserable state is borne by the wretched souls of those who lived without disgrace and without praise.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Class, Living, Life
O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Conscience
These have not the hope to die.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Dying, Death
Consider your breed; you were not made to live like beasts, but to follow virtue and knowledge.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Humankind, Humanity
Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal.
—Dante Alighieri
The secret of getting things done is to act!
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Action
Abandon all hope, you who enter here!
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Hell
Pride, envy, avarice – these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Pride
Not in mine eyes alone in Paradise.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Eyes
I am searching for that which every man seeks—peace and rest.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Aspirations, Goals, Serenity
The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Habits, Change
Less shame a greater fault would palliate.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Shame
Only experience can show how salt the savor is of others’ bread, and how sad a path it is to climb and descend another’s stairs.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Poverty
There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Regret, Repentance, Remorse, Memory
Will cannot be quenched against its will.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Willpower, Will, Will Power
A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Little Things, Things
He listens well who takes notes.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Listening
For where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Intelligence, Defense
Art, as far as it has the ability, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master, so that art must be, as it were, a descendant of God.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Art
Often a retrospect delights the mind.
—Dante Alighieri
I wept not, so to stone within I grew.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Cries, Crying
Think that this day will never dawn again.
—Dante Alighieri
Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Heaven
It is necessity and not pleasure that compels us.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Necessity
Follow your own star!
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Individuality, Follow
The more perfect a thing is, the more susceptible to good and bad treatment it is.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Perfection
Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Fame
In the middle of the journey of our life
I found myself astray in a dark wood
where the straight road had been lost sight of.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Journeys
Heat cannot be separated from fire, or beauty from The Eternal.
—Dante Alighieri
There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Sorrow
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crises, maintain their neutrality.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Dedication, Morals, Commitment
A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Action
Everything that is, desires to be. As we act, we unfold our being. Enjoyment naturally follows, for a thing desired always brings delight.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Desire, Follow, Joy, Act, Light
He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.
—Dante Alighieri
Topics: Service, Kindness, Compassion
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