Consider your origin;
you were not born to live like brutes,
but to follow virtue and knowledge.

Considerate la vostra semenza:
fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.

Dante Alighieri

Inferno

Buy Inferno at Amazon Buy Inferno at Amazon
Read the Divine Comedy at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of life Virtue

Author

Dante Alighieri

Source

Inferno The Divine Comedy

Medium

Poem

Genre

Narrative poem Epic poem Religious literature

Language

Italian

Time

1321 1320s 14th century

Era

Middle Ages

Occupation

Poet Writer

From

Italy Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Inferno [Hell]." La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri [The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri]. Foligno: Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi, 1472.

Current Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Inferno." The Divine Comedy, edited by David H. Higgins, translated by C. H. Sisson. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Dante Alighieri about purpose of life: “Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to…”
Download
A quote by Dante Alighieri about purpose of life: “Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to…”
Download
A quote by Dante Alighieri about purpose of life: “Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to…”
Download

Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Dante Alighieri

Haste denies all acts their dignity.

Dante Alighieri

Purgatorio

Buy Purgatorio at Amazon Buy Purgatorio at Amazon
Read the Divine Comedy at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Haste Taking one's time

Author

Dante Alighieri
Source
Purgatorio The Divine Comedy
Medium
Poem
Genre
Narrative poem Epic poem Religious literature
Language
Italian
Time
1321 1320s 14th century
Era
Middle Ages
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Dante. "Purgatorio [Purgatory]." La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri [The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri]. Foligno: Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi, 1472.

Current Citation

Dante. "The Purgatorio." The Divine Comedy, edited by David H. Higgins, translated by C. H. Sisson. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Another quote about Purpose of life

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

W.H. Davies

More information about this quote
Topic
Taking one's time Slowing down Busyness Purpose of life Life

Author

W.H. Davies
Source
Leisure Songs of Joy and Others
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1911 1910s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Davies, W. H. "Leisure." Songs of Joy and Others. A. C. Fifield, 1911.

Another quote from the 14th century

He loved chivalrie,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.

Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales

Buy The Canterbury Tales at Amazon Buy The Canterbury Tales at Amazon
Read The Canterbury Tales at harvard.edu
More information about this quote
Topic
Knights Medieval values

Author

Geoffrey Chaucer
Source
The Canterbury Tales
Language
English
Time
1400 1400s 14th century
Era
Middle Ages
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The General Prologue." The Canterbury Tales. London: William Caxton, c. 1476.

Current Citation

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The General Prologue." The Canterbury Tales, edited and translated by Nevill Coghill. Penguin Classics, 2003.

Another quote from Middle Ages

To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.

Magna Carta

Read The Magna Carta at the British Library's website
More information about this quote
Topic
Rule of law Justice
Source
Magna Carta
Medium
Political charter
Genre
Political literature
Language
Latin
Time
1215 1210s 13th century
Era
Middle Ages
Authentication Score 1
Original Citation

Magna Carta Libertatum [Great Charter of Freedoms]. 5 June 1215, clause 40.

Current Citation

Magna Carta, translated by David A. Carpenter. Penguin Classics, 2015, clause 40.

Another quote originally in Italian

The time will come when this universe and nature herself will be no more. And just as of very great human kingdoms and empires and of their marvelous exploits, which were so very famous in other ages, there remains no sign of fame whatsoever, so too of the entire world, and of the infinite vicissitudes and calamities of all created things, no single trace will remain, but a naked silence and a most profound quiet will fill the immensity of space. Thus, this stupendous and frightening mystery of universal existence, before it can be declared or understood, will vanish and be lost.

Giacomo Leopardi

More information about this quote
Topic
Death of the universe The universe

Author

Giacomo Leopardi
Source
The Song of the Wild Rooster Operette Morali
Language
Italian
Time
1835 1830s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Leopardi, Giacomo. "Cantico del gallo silvestre [Song of the Wild Rooster]." Operette morali [Small Moral Works]. Naples: Presso Saverio Starita, 1835.

Current Citation

Leopardi, Giacomo. "Song of the Great Wild Rooster." Operette Morali: Essays and Dialogues. University of California Press, 1983.