O clear and noble conscience, how sharply a little fault stings you!
[O dignitosa coscïenza, e netta,
come t’è picciol fallo amaro morso!]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 2 “Purgatorio,” Canto 3, l. 8ff (3.8-9) (1314) [tr. Kline (2002)]
(Source)
Observing his guide, Virgil, upset over one of his own lapses.
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:
O matchless dignity of stainless thought!
Thus bitter seems to you the taste of Sin!
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 2]
O clear conscience and upright
How doth a little sting wound thee sore!
[tr. Cary (1814)]
Oh, dignity of conscience, when complete,
How small will bitter make that once was sweet!
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]
O noble conscience, and without a stain,
How sharp a sting is trivial fault to thee!
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]
O conscience, dignified and pure, how bitter a sting is a small fault to thee!
[tr. Butler (1885)]
O conscience honourably pure, to thee
How is a little fault most bitterly shrived!
[tr. Minchin (1885)]
O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is little fault!
[tr. Norton (1892)]
O noble conscience and clear, how sharp a sting gives a little fault to thee!
[tr. Wicksteed (1899)]
O pure and noble conscience, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]
O honourable conscience, clear and chaste,
How small a fault stings thee to bitter smart!
[tr. Binyon (1943)]
O noble conscience, clear and undefaced,
How keen thy self-reproach for one small slip!
[tr. Sayers (1955)]
O noble conscience without stain! how sharp
the sting of a small fault is to your sense!
[tr. Ciardi (1961)]
O pure and noble conscience, how bitter
a sting is a little fault to you!
[tr. Singleton (1973)]
O dignity of conscience, noble, chaste,
how one slight fault can sting you into shame!
[tr. Musa (1981)]
O conscience so precious and so clear,
How small a fault is a sharp tooth to you!
[tr. Sisson (1981)]
O pure and noble conscience, you in whom
each petty fault becomes a harsh rebuke!
[tr. Mandelbaum (1982)]
O worthy clear conscience, how bitter a bite to you is even a little fault!
[tr. Durling (2003)]
Such dignity of conscience, clear and clean,
bitten so keenly by so slight a fault!
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]
O pure and noble conscience,
how bitter is the sting of your least fault!
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]
But O, how purest consciences are stung
By tiny faults, bitter on noble tongues!
[tr. Raffel (2010)]
Quotations about:
high standards
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The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment — social, political, or ethical — can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
“America and Americans” (1966)
