When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.

More from The Divine Comedy

• But here I can’t be still; and by the lines of this my Comedy, reader, I swear- and may my verse find favor for long years.
• you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.
• Here one must leave behind all hesitation; here every cowardice must meet its death.
• Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries were echoing across the starless air, so that, as soon as I set out, I wept.
• May God so let you, reader, gather fruit from what you read.
• Moving again, I tried the lonely slope- my firm foot was always the one below.