Paradiso Faith Quotes

If I was body (and on earth we can
not see how things material can share
one space – the case, when body enters body),
then should our longing be still more inflamed
to see that Essence in which we discern
how God and human nature were made one.
What we hold here by faith, shall there be seen,
not demonstrated but directly known,
even as the first truth that man believes. (Par. II, 37-45)

[Beatrice]: "Neither the Seraph closest unto God,
nor Moses, Samuel, nor either John –
whichever one you will – nor Mary has,
I say, their place in any other heaven
than that which houses those souls you just saw,
nor will their blessedness last any longer.
But all those souls grace the Empyrean;
and each of them has gentle life – though some
sense the Eternal Spirit more, some less.
They showed themselves to you here not because
this is their sphere, but as a sign for you
that in the Empyrean their place is lowest.
Such signs are suited to your mind, since from
the senses only can it apprehend
what then becomes fit for the intellect." (Par. IV, 28-42)

O senseless cares of mortals, how deceiving
are syllogistic reasonings that bring
your wings to flight so low, to earthly things!
One studied law and one the Aphorisms
of the physicians; one was set on priesthood
and one, through force or fraud, on rulership;
one meant to plunder, one to politick;
one labored, tangled in delights of flesh,
and one was fully bent on indolence;
while I [Dante], delivered from our servitude
to all these things, was in the heights of heaven
with Beatrice, so gloriously welcomed. (Par. XI, 1-12)

[St. Thomas]: "My words did not prevent your seeing clearly
that it was as a king that he had asked
for wisdom that would serve his royal task –
and not to know the number of the angels
on high or, if combined with a contingent,
necesse ever can produce necesse,
or si est dare primum motum esse,
or if, within a semicircle, one
can draw a triangle with no right angle.
Thus, if you note both what I said and say,
by 'matchless vision' it is kingly prudence
my arrow of intention means to strike;" (Par. XIII, 94-105)

Then – and he was a joy to hear and see –
that spirit [Cacciaguida] added to his first words things
that were too deep to meet my understanding.
Not that he chose to hide his sense from me;
necessity compelled him; he conceived
beyond the mark a mortal mind can reach.
And when his bow of burning sympathy
was slack enough to let his speech descend
to meet the limit of our intellect,
these were the first words where I caught the sense: (Par. XV, 37-46)

[The Eagle]: "Thus it is clear that every lesser nature
is – all the more – too meager a container
for endless Good, which is Its own sole measure.
In consequence of this, your vision – which
must be a ray of that Intelligence
with which all beings are infused – cannot
of its own nature find sufficient force
to see into its origin beyond
what God himself makes manifest to man;
therefore, the vision that your world receives
can penetrate into Eternal Justice
no more than eye can penetrate the sea;
for though, near shore, sight reaches the sea floor,
you cannot reach it in the open sea;
yet it is there, but hidden by the deep." (Par. XIX, 49-63)

[The Eagle]: …"No one without belief in Christ
has ever risen to this kingdom – either
before or after He was crucified.
But there are many who now cry 'Christ! Christ!'
who at the Final Judgment shall be far
less close to Him than one who knows not Christ;
the Ethiopian will shame such Christians
when the two companies are separated,
the one forever rich, the other poor." (Par. XIX, 103-111)

[Dante to St. Peter]: …"Father, as the truthful pen
of your dear brother wrote – that brother who,
with you, set Rome upon the righteous road –
faith is the substance of the things we hope for
and is the evidence of things not seen;
and this I take to be its quiddity." (Par. XXIV, 60-65)

[Dante to St. Peter]: I next: "The deep things that on me bestow
their image here, are hid from sight below,
so that their being lies in faith alone,
and on that faith the highest hope is founded;
and thus it is that faith is called a substance.
And it is from this faith that we must reason,
deducing what we can from syllogisms,
without our being able to see more:
thus faith is also called an evidence." (Par. XXIV, 70-78)

[St. Peter to Dante]: "What is the origin of the dear gem
that comes to you, the gem on which all virtues
are founded?" I: "The Holy Ghost's abundant
rain poured upon the parchments old and new;
that the syllogism that has proved
with such persuasiveness that faith has truth –
when set beside that argument, all other
demonstrations seem to me obtuse." (Par. XXIV, 89-96)

I answer: I believe in one God – sole,
eternal – He who, motionless, moves all
the heavens with His love and love for Him;
for this belief I have not only proofs
both physical and metaphysical;
I also have the truth that here rains down
through Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms
and through the Gospels and through you who wrote
words given to you by the Holy Ghost.
And I believe in three Eternal Persons,
and these I do believe to be one essence,
so single and threefold as to allow
both is and are. Of this profound condition
of God that I have touched on, Gospel teaching
has often asset the imprint on my mind.
This is the origin, this is the spark
that then extends into a vivid flame
and, like a star in heaven, glows in me." (Par. XXIV, 130-147)

That circle – which, begotten so, appeared
in You as light reflected – when my eyes
had watched it with attention for some time,
within itself and colored like itself,
to me seemed painted with our effigy,
so that my sight was set on it completely.
As the geometer intently seeks
to square the circle, but he cannot reach,
through thought on thought the principle he needs,
so I searched that strange sight: I wished to see
the way in which our human effigy
suited the circle and found place in it –
and my own wings were far too weak for that. (Par. XXXIII, 127-139)