(96) Woe to you, lying witnesses, And to those who weigh out injustice, For suddenly shall ye perish.

(81) Take notice, ye worldlywise lawyers, if you will not come before this looking-glass, even before the bright and clear face of God, and view yourselves therein, then the spirit presenteth to you the birth or geniture in the innermost astringent circle; where wit, cunning and prudence are generated, where the sharpness of the anxious birth or geniture of God is, for there your prudence, cunning and deepreaching wit are generated.

(1) Let no one then, run down law, as if, on account of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. For shall he who drives away bodily disease appear a benefactor; and shall not he who attempts to deliver the soul from iniquity, as much more appear a friend, as the soul is a more precious thing than the body?

(4) To say, then, that the man who has been injured goes to law before the unrighteous, is nothing else than to say that he shows a wish to retaliate, and a desire to injure the second in return, which is also to do wrong likewise himself.

(2) I was greatly troubled in my groaning. I will bathe my bed and my cover each night with my tears. I have become old in the midst of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you who work at lawlessness, for look, the lord has heard the cry of my weeping and the lord has heard my prayer.

(96) Woe to you, sinners, for ye persecute the righteous; For ye shall be delivered up and persecuted because of injustice, And heavy shall its yoke be upon you.

(6) Even as our eye did not uplift itself Aloft, being fastened upon earthly things, So justice here has merged it in the earth. As avarice had extinguished our affection For every good, whereby was action lost, So justice here doth hold us in restraint, Bound and imprisoned by the feet and hands; And so long as it pleases the just Lord Shall we remain immovable and prostrate." I on my knees had fallen, and wished to speak; But even as I began, and he was 'ware, Only by listening, of my reverence, "What cause," he said, "has downward bent thee thus?" And I to him: "For your own dignity, Standing, my conscience stung me with remorse."

(101) Woe to you, Sinners, on the day of strong anguish, Ye who afflict the righteous and burn them with fire: Ye shall be requited according to your works.

(52) Yet I do not complain; I merely state my case. My heart says, "He has injured me," Do me justice, O Thou who art the glory of the just, Who art the throne, and I the lintel of Thy door! But, in sober truth, where are throne and doorway? Where are "We" and "I?" There where our Beloved is! O Thou, who art exempt from "Us" and "Me," Who pervadest the spirits of all men and women; When man and woman become one, Thou art that One! When their union is dissolved, lo! Thou abidest!

(4) (And I beseech for Thine instruction), I who will abjure all disobedience (toward Thee, praying that others likewise may withhold it) from Thee; I who abjure the Evil Mind as well, the lordly kinsman's arrogance , and that lying sin which is (alas!) the next thing to the people (their most familiar fault), and the blaming ally's falsehood, and from the Kine the worst care of her meadows (the crime of stint in labour ),

(129) All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter.

(21) Here indeed is many a hard blow or crushing; for the kindled wrath-fire of God falls many times so heavy upon them, and they know not where to bestow themselves; heavy mountains lie upon them, the lovecross presseth sore, and is heavy.

(15) I shall not be grasped by my arms or seized by my hands

(1) AND if thee think that this manner of working be not according to thy disposition in body and in soul, thou mayest leave it and take another, safely with good ghostly counsel without blame. And then I beseech thee that thou wilt have me excused, for truly I would have profited unto thee in this writing at my simple cunning; and that was mine intent. And therefore read over twice or thrice; and ever the ofter the better, and the more thou shalt conceive thereof. Insomuch, peradventure, that some sentence that was full hard to thee at the first or the second reading, soon after thou shalt think it easy.

(4) I stretched forth my hand for thee against thy adversaries

(24) " thou shalt cause to draw nigh, and thou shalt judge the right

(1) AND therefore for God’s love be wary in this work, and strain not thine heart in thy breast over‑rudely nor out of measure; but work more with a list than with any worthless strength. For ever the more Mistily, the more meekly and ghostly: and ever the more rudely, the more bodily and beastly. And therefore be wary, for surely what beastly heart that presumeth for to touch the high mount of this work, it shall be beaten away with stones. Stones be hard and dry in their kind, and they hurt full sore where they hit. And surely such rude strainings be full hard fastened in fleshliness of bodily feeling, and full dry from any witting of grace; and they hurt full sore the silly soul, and make it fester in fantasy feigned of fiends. And therefore be wary with this beastly rudeness, and learn thee to love listily, with a soft and a demure behaviour as well in body as in soul; and abide courteously and meekly the will of our Lord, and snatch not overhastily, as it were a greedy greyhound, hunger thee never so sore. And, gamingly be it said, I counsel that thou do that in thee is, refraining the rude and the great stirring of thy spirit, right as thou on nowise wouldest let Him wit how fain thou wouldest see Him, and have Him or feel Him.

(1) Thou who holdest the bound victims; ye knives over their heads and locks and fleeces; ye aged and bright ones who are armed with the fated moment

(29) The first of my counsels shall be given on your wrist, The second on your well-plastered roof, And the third I will give you from the top of a tree. As regards the counsel on your wrist, 'tis this. 'Believe not foolish assertions of any one!'" When he had spoken this counsel on his wrist, he flew Up to the top of the roof, entirely free. Then he said, "Do not grieve for what is past; When a thing is done, vex not yourself about it."

(5) Now hast thou power to judge of such as those Whom I accused above, and of their crimes, Which are the cause of all your miseries. To the public standard one the yellow lilies Opposes, the other claims it for a party, So that 'tis hard to see which sins the most. Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft Beneath some other standard; for this ever Ill follows he who it and justice parts. And let not this new Charles e'er strike it down, He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons That from a nobler lion stripped the fell. Already oftentimes the sons have wept The father's crime; and let him not believe That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies. This little planet doth adorn itself With the good spirits that have active been, That fame and honour might come after them; And whensoever the desires mount thither, Thus deviating, must perforce the rays Of the true love less vividly mount upward. But in commensuration of our wages With our desert is portion of our joy, Because we see them neither less nor greater.