Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.

The line frames pride, envy, and avarice as small “sparks” that nonetheless ignite vast moral and social destruction. In Dante’s moral universe, these vices are not merely private flaws but catalytic forces that inflame the human heart, distort judgment, and drive conflict—turning desire into rivalry, status-seeking, and grasping accumulation. The metaphor suggests how quickly such impulses spread and intensify: a minor inward consent to a vice can become a consuming fire. Read in a broader Dantean key, it also implies the need for disciplined self-knowledge and spiritual reordering, since the heart’s susceptibility makes these sins near-universal temptations rather than rare aberrations.