“ Virtue is like an enemy avoided By all, as is a serpent, through misfortune Of place, or through bad habit that impels them ”
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (1320). copy citation
| Author | Dante Alighieri |
|---|---|
| Source | Divine Comedy |
| Topic | virtue misfortune |
| Date | 1320 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translanted by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1004/pg1004.html |
Context
“(where is so pregnant The Alpine mountain whence is cleft Peloro That in few places it that mark surpasses)
To where it yields itself in restoration Of what the heaven doth of the sea dry up, Whence have the rivers that which goes with them,
Virtue is like an enemy avoided By all, as is a serpent, through misfortune Of place, or through bad habit that impels them;
On which account have so transformed their nature The dwellers in that miserable valley, It seems that Circe had them in her pasture.
'Mid ugly swine, of acorns worthier Than other food for human use created, It first directeth its impoverished way.”
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