I like that other Dante line that TS Eliot uses in The Waste Land: Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina / he embraced the fire that refines him. It's a good absurdist maxim for when you're trying to explain to someone that it's fun that you're caught in an alpine hail storm 10 miles from the trailhead.
(But this is seriously why people should study classic literature. It lets you connect to ancient wisdom in all kinds of situations -- referring you, as an individual living now, to the whole process of history in an immediate way).