Dante

A backward glance can always lift the heart.

Don’t waste your soul on regret

The loser, when a game of dice is done,
remains behind reviewing every roll
sadly, and sadly wiser, and alone.


The wisest are the most annoyed with the loss of time.


Sta come torre ferma, che non crolla
Giammai la cima per soffiar de’ venti.
Be steadfast as a tower that doth not bend its stately summit to the tempest’s shock.


Consider that this day never dawns again.


Follow your own star!


Acting brings delight

…Everything that is, desires to be. As we act, we unfold our being. Enjoyment naturally follows, for a thing desired always brings delight.


I did not die, yet I lost life’s breath.


Because your question searches for deep meaning, I shall explain in simple words


Without hope we live in desire.


If you give people light, people will find their own way.


Everywhere is here, and everywhen is now.


Where the way is hardest, there go thou; Follow your own path and let people talk.


Be like a solid tower whose brave height remains unmoved by all the winds that blow; the man who lets his thoughts be turned aside by one thing or another, will lose sight of his true goal, his mind sapped of its strength.


Questo misero modo
tegnon l’anime triste di coloro
che visser sanza ‘nfamia e sanza lodo.

This miserable state
is borne by the wretched souls of those
who lived without disgrace and without praise.


Bene ascolta chi la nota.

He listens well who takes notes.


.Seggendo in piuma
in fama non si vien, né sotto coltre,
sanza la qual chi sua vita consuma
cotal vestigo in terra di sé lascia
qual fummo in aere ed in acqua la schiuma.

Lying in a featherbed
will not bring you fame, nor staying beneath the quilt,
and he who uses up his life without achieving fame
leaves no more vestige of himself on Earth
than smoke in the air or foam upon the water.


We don’t notice the passing of time

Vassene ‘l tempo e l’uom non se n’avvede.

Time moves and yet we do not notice it.


You were born to fly upwards!

Don’t let a little wind cause you to fall!

O gente umana, per volar sù nata,
perché a poco vento così cadi?

O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?


All you need to start with is a little spark!

Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda.

A great flame follows a little spark


Freedom of will

Lo maggior don che Dio per sua larghezza
fesse creando, e a la sua bontate
più conformato, e quel ch’e’ più apprezza,
fu de la volontà la libertate;
di che le creature intelligenti,
e tutte e sole, fuore e son dotate.

The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating, and the most conformed to His own goodness and that which He most prizes, was the freedom of the will, with which the creatures that have intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed.

Lo maggior don che Dio per sua larghezza
fesse creando, e a la sua bontate
più conformato, e quel ch’e’ più apprezza,
fu de la volontà la libertate;
di che le creature intelligenti,
e tutte e sole, fuore e son dotate.

The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating, and the most conformed to His own goodness and that which He most prizes, was the freedom of the will, with which the creatures that have intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed.