* Love hath so long possessed me for his own
And made his lordship so familiar.
- La Vita Nuova, Chapter XXVIII (1293)

* Behold a God more powerful than I who comes to rule over me.
- La Vita Nuova, Chapter II (1293)

* Love with delight discourses in my mind
Upon my lady's admirable gifts...
Beyond the range of human intellect.
- Il Convivio, Trattato Terzo, line 1

The Divine Comedy

 

About Dante Alighieri:

 * And you, beloved children, whose lot it is to promote learning under the magisterium of the Church, continue as you are doing to love and tend the noble poet whom We do not hesitate to call the most eloquent singer of the Christian idea.
- Pope Benedict XV, In Praeclara Summorum (1921-04-30)

* Dante does not come before us as a large Catholic mind; rather as a narrow, and even sectarian mind: it is partly the fruit of his age and position, but partly too of his own nature. His greatness has, in all senses, concentred itself into fiery emphasis and depth. He is world-great not because he is world-wide, but because he is world-deep. Through all objects he pierces as it were down into the heart of Being. I know nothing so intense as Dante.
- Thomas Carlyle, in "The Hero as Poet" from Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841)

* I want my illustrations for the Dante to be like the faint markings of moisture in a divine cheese... Mysticism is cheese; Christ is cheese, better still, mountains of cheese!
o Salvador Dalí

* Dante is my spiritual food!
- James Joyce

* Dante will always be admired, because no one ever read him.
- Voltaire