"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love."
— Meister Eckhart

"Amor, ch'al cor gentile ratto s'apprende
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.

Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,
Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
Che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona..."

"Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
Seized him with my beautiful form
That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.

Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,
took me so strongly with delight in him
That, as you see, it still abandons me not..."
— Dante Alighieri (Inferno)

"There is no greater sorrow
Than to recall a happy time
When miserable.

Nessun maggior dolore
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice
Nella miseria.
- Inferno (V, 121),"
— Dante (Inferno (Modern Library Series) - translated by John Ciardi)

"And at that moment, a lilting melody lifts to the moon as a single sparrow sings. - Elaine, Lady of Shalott"
— Lisa Ann Sandell (Song of the Sparrow)

"Reason, you'll always be half-blind."
— Marguerite Porete

"I felt for the tormented whirlwinds
Damned for their carnal sins
Committed when they let their passions rule their reason."
— Dante Alighieri

"The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. "
— Thomas Aquinas

"People pretend not to like grapes when the vines are too high for them to reach."
— Marguerite de Navarre

"Lying is a thriving vocation."
— Susanna Centrilivre

"Whoever has received knowledge
and eloquence in speech from God
should not be silent or secretive
but demonstrate it willingly.
When a great good is widely heard of,
then, and only then, does it bloom,
and when that good is praised by man,
it has spread its blossoms."
— Marie de France

""Against the disease of writing one must take special precautions, since it is a dangerous and contagious disease.""
— Peter Abelard (Forbidden Fruit: From The Letters of Abelard and Heloise)

"'I mean to take a good look at any man ere I leap into his arms.'
'Then look your fill, and leap away.'"
— Charles Reade (The Cloister and the Hearth)

"Theologians and other clerks,
You won't understand this book,
-- However bright your wits --
If you do not meet it humbly,
And in this way, Love and Faith
Make you surmount Reason, for
They are the protectors of Reason's house. "
— Marguerite Porete

"Of all the things that men may heed
'Tis most of love they sing indeed"
— Sir Orfeo

"[Medieval] Art was not just a static element in society, or even one which interacted with the various social groups. It was not simply something which was made to decorate or to instruct — or even to overawe and dominate. Rather, it was that and more. It was potentially controversial in ways both similar and dissimilar to its couterpart today. It was something which could by its force of attraction not only form the basis for the economy of a particular way of life, it could also come to change that way of life in ways counter to the original intent. Along with this and because of this, art carried a host of implications, both social and moral, which had to be justified. Indeed, it is from the two related and basic elements of justification and function — claim and reality — that Bernard approaches the question of art in the Apologia."
— Conrad Rudolph