“Put off this sloth,” the master said, “for shame!
Sitting on feather-pillows, lying reclined
Beneath the blanket is no way to fame —
Fame, without which man’s life wastes out of mind,
Leaving on earth no more memorial
Than foam in water or smoke upon the wind.
Rise up; control thy panting breath, and call
The soul to aid, that wins in every fight,
Save the dull flesh should drag it to a fall.
More stairs remain to climb—a longer flight” (XXIV, 46-55, pg. 221)
— Dante Alighieri, Cantica I: Hell, The Comedy of Dante Alighieri, The Florentine, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers (Hammondsworth: Penguin Books, 1949).