“There is no greater sorrowThan to recall a happy timeWhen miserable.”

“There is no greater sorrow than to recall in misery the time when we were happy.”

“There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.”

“No sadness is greater than in misery to rehearse memories of joy.”

“But the stars that marked our starting fall away.We must go deeper into greater pain,for it is not permitted that we stay.”

“And I — my head oppressed by horror — said:"Master, what is it that I hear? Who arethose people so defeated by their pain?"      And he to me: "This miserable wayis taken by the sorry souls of thosewho lived without disgrace and without praise.      They now commingle with the coward angels,the company of those who were not rebelsnor faithful to their God, but stood apart.      The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them —even the wicked cannot glory in them.”

“Those ancients who in poetry presented the golden age, who sang its happy state,perhaps, in their Parnassus, dreamt this place. Here, mankind's root was innocent; and herewere every fruit and never-ending spring; these streams--the nectar of which poets sing.”