There is no greater sorrow Than to recall a happy time When miserable.

The line is spoken in Dante’s Inferno by Francesca da Rimini, encountered by Dante and Virgil among the lustful in the second circle of Hell. Francesca recounts how she and Paolo fell into adultery—famously while reading the romance of Lancelot—and were killed for it. In this scene, Dante frames her story as both moving and morally charged: her eloquence elicits pity even as her fate exemplifies the consequences of disordered desire. The remark about remembering happiness in misery functions as part of her lament, underscoring the torment of regret and the poignancy of lost joy within the infernal setting.

The quote expresses a paradox of suffering: pain is intensified not only by present misery but by the contrast with remembered happiness. Memory becomes a kind of punishment, because it reanimates what is irretrievably lost and makes the present feel harsher by comparison. In Inferno, the line also carries moral complexity. Francesca’s nostalgia is seductive and humanizing, yet it can be read as self-justifying—she dwells on the sweetness of love rather than fully owning its ethical breach. Dante thus uses the psychology of remembrance to evoke compassion while keeping the reader alert to the difference between tragic feeling and moral truth.

“There is no greater sorrow than to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.”
“There is no greater grief than to remember days of happiness when one is in misery.”
“There is no greater pain than to remember happy times in misery.”