Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.

A great flame follows a little spark.

All hope abandon, ye who enter here!

Avarice, envy, pride,
Three fatal sparks, have set the hearts of all
On Fire.

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

He listens well who takes notes.

If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.

There is no greater sorrow
Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery.

Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I shall endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.