Quotation added by staff

Why not add this quote to your bookmarks?

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.   Kennedy, John F.

Source: President JOHN F. KENNEDY, remarks in Bonn, West Germany, at the signing of a charter establishing the German Peace Corps, June 24, 1963.Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, p. 503.This remark may have been inspired by the passage from Dante Alighieris La Comedia Divina, trans. Geoffrey L. Bickersteth, Inferno, canto 3, lines 3542 :by those disbodied wretches who were lothwhen living, to be either blamed or praised. Fear to lose beauty caused the heavens to expelthese caitiffs; nor, lest to the damned they thengave cause to boast, receives them the deep hell.A more modern-sounding translation: They are mixed with that repulsive choir of angels undecided in neutrality. Heaven, to keep its beauty, cast them out, but even Hell itself would not receive them for fear the wicked there might glory over them.Dantes Inferno, trans. Mark Musa, p. 21 . · This quote is about uncategorised · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

• Biography
• 8 Fans
• This quote in blogs