‘Henceforward it behoves that thou brace thyself thus,’ said the Master; ‘for not by sitting on feathers does one come into fame, nor under quilts; without the which whoso consumes his life leaves such trace on earth of himself as smoke in air or its froth on water. And therefore lift up, conquer the task with the mind that wins every battle, if with its heavy body it throw not itself down. A longer stair has need to be ascended” (XXIV, lines unnumbered, pg. 286)
— Dante Alighieri, The Hell of Dante Alighieri, trans. Arthur John Butler (London: Macmillan and Co., 1894).