Dante's Inferno

8.94-96 :: To Reader

Reflect, reader, how I lost my courage
When I heard them speak the awful curse,
For I did not think I ever would go back.

10.103-108 :: Shades' Knowledge

"When things approach or happen, our intellect
Is useless; unless others inform us here
We would know nothing of your human state.

"So you can comprehend how wholly dead
Shall be our knowledge at that moment when
The door of the future has slammed shut."

1.76-78 :: Virgil's Question to Dante

"But why do you turn back to so much grief?
Why not bound up the delightful mountain
Which is the source and font of every joy?"