On Moderates and Mavericks

   And I, my head in a swirl

Of error, cried: “Master, what is this I hear?

   What people are these, whom pain has overcome?”

   He:  ”This is the sorrowful state of souls unsure,

Whose lives earned neither honor nor bad fame.

   And they are mingled with angels of that base sort

   Who, neither rebellious to God nor faithful to Him,

Chose neither side but set themselves apart–

   Now Heaven expels them, not to mar its splendor,

   And Hell rejects them, lest the wicked of heart

Take glory over them.

Inferno, Canto III