“Up on your feet! This is no time to tire!”
my Master cried. “The man who lies asleep
will never waken fame, and his desire
and all his life drift past him like a dream,
and the traces of his memory fade from time
like smoke in air, or ripples on a stream.
Now, therefore, rise. Control your breath, and call
upon the strength of soul that wins all battles
unless it sink in the gross body’s fall.
There is a longer ladder yet to climb.” (XXIV, 46-55, pg. 190)
— Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, trans. John Ciardi (New York: New American Library, 2003).