Daily quote by Virgil

• Facilis descensus Averno
  Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
  Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
  Hoc opus, hic labor est.
  • The gates of hell are open night and day;
    Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
    But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
    In this the task and mighty labor lies.
  • Lines 126–129 (as translated by John Dryden)
    • Variant translation:

      It is easy to go down into Hell;
      Night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide;
      But to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air—
      There's the rub, the task.

    • Compare:
      • Long is the way
        And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.
        • John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, line 432