Paradox

A statement that seems to contradict itself or common sense, but which, once thought through, reveals a truth.

In Inferno

for such defects, and not for any other guilt, we are lost, and offended only in this: that without hope we live in desire.

The sentence joins "without hope" and "in desire": whoever desires usually hopes, and here the two things come apart. The apparent contradiction states the whole punishment of Limbo, a wanting that has nowhere to go.

Cantos I to IV: The Forest and the Gate, Virgil, explaining to Dante what the souls of Limbo are, where he himself dwells

O Capaneus, it is in not being quenched that your pride is more punished; no martyrdom, except your rage, would be complete pain for your fury.

Cantos XIII to XVII: The Violent, Virgil, to Capaneus, the blasphemer who defies Jove under the rain of fire

here piety lives when it is well dead; who is more wicked than he who has compassion for the judgment of God?

Cantos XVIII to XXII: The First Five Ditches, Virgil, rebuking Dante, who weeps before the diviners

and the severed head held it by the hair, hanging from the hand like a lantern; and it looked at us and said: woe is me! It made of itself a lamp for itself, and they were two in one and one in two; how that can be, he knows who so governs.

Cantos XXVII to XXX: Guido, Mahomet, the Forgers, Dante, describing the figure of Bertran de Born, who carries his own head like a lantern

I did not die and I did not remain alive; think now for yourself, if you have the flower of wit, what I became, deprived of both.

Cantos XXXI to XXXIV: The Ice and Lucifer, Dante, seeing Lucifer, at the center of the universe