Dante's most famous lines
The top 3 according to 0 votes from people: Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark · Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. · You were not made to live like brutes, / but to follow virtue and knowledge.. (Updated Mar 1, 2023.)
Lines from the Divine Comedy (and the Vita Nuova) that became part of everyday Italian, with canto and canticle.
Automatically translated (original in Italiano). See the original
Top 12
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1
Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark
The opening of the Comedy, Inferno I, 1-2.
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2
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
The inscription over the gate of Hell, Inferno III, 9.
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3
You were not made to live like brutes, / but to follow virtue and knowledge.
Ulysses' speech to his companions, Inferno XXVI, 119-120.
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4
Love, which absolves no beloved one from loving
Francesca da Rimini, Inferno V, 103.
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5
There is no greater sorrow / than to recall a happy time / in misery
Francesca, Inferno V, 121-123.
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6
So it is willed where what is willed can be done; ask no more.
Virgil to Charon, Inferno III, 95-96.
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7
Let us not speak of them, but look and pass on.
Virgil on the slothful, Inferno III, 51.
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8
And thence we came forth to see again the stars.
The last line of the Inferno, XXXIV, 139.
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9
Ah, servile Italy, hostel of grief, / ship without a pilot in a great storm
The invective against Italy, Purgatorio VI, 76-77.
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10
Follow me, and let the people talk.
Virgil to Dante, Purgatorio V, 13; origin of the proverbial «follow your course and let people talk».
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11
You shall learn how salty another's bread tastes
The prophecy of exile, Paradiso XVII, 58-59.
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12
The love that moves the sun and the other stars.
The last line of the Comedy, Paradiso XXXIII, 145.
Candidates
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13
So gentle and so honest appears / my lady when she greets others
The sonnet for Beatrice in the Vita Nuova (c. 1294).
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Comments (4)
Benigni che legge Dante in TV, indimenticabile.
Paolo e Francesca, il canto V mi fa sempre piangere.
«Fatti non foste a viver come bruti» dovrebbe essere scritto in ogni scuola.
«Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita», la sappiamo tutti a memoria dalle medie.