Last year I discovered Dante's genius for the first time. So today, I give you some of my favorites:

Foolish is he who hopes our intellect can reach the end of that unending road only one Sustance in three Persons follows.
Purgatorio iii 34-36

He who best discerns the worth of time is most distressed whenever time is lost.
Purgatorio iii 777-78

His choice phrases:

celestial justice
sturdy intellects
filthy effigy of fraud
colored with shame

His gift for humor:

"Perhaps you did not think I was a logician."

And finally, his words that give us new insight into old stories:

"Haste denies all acts their dignity."

In these six words I see a prodigal father running to spend his dignity to buy his child a few more seconds in his arms.