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This divine spirit is directing us
toward the ascent without our even asking,
concealed in his own shining.

He cares for us as we do for ourselves, since he that sees another's need and awaits the asking
maliciously has set his mind upon refusal.
XXVII.55-60

Because your appetites are fixed on things
that, divided, lessen each one's share,
envy's bellows pushes breath into your sighs.

But if love for the highest sphere
could turn your longings toward heavenly things,
then fear of sharing would pass from your hearts.
XV.49-54

But I was getting so bogged down that I actually skipped ahead to XXIV (gluttony) and have read through XXIX (garden of eden).

"Tell him withal
His danger and from whom, what enemy
Late fall'n himself from Heav'n is plotting now
The fall of others from like state of bliss:
By violence, no, for that shall be withstood,
But by deceit and lies. This let him know
Lest willfully transgressing he pretend
Surprisal unadmonished, unforewaned." 5.238-245

Love Gabriel's snarky responses to Satan's claim he merely fled pain as anyone would: "But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with thee /Came not all Hell broke loose? Is pain to them /Less pain, less to be fled, or thou than they /Less hardy to endure? Courageous chief: /The first in flight from pain!" 4.917-21.

canto X with its focus on mimetic art, so lifelike as to blur the lines, makes me think of Tolkien's faerian drama

The address to Florence hits a little too close to home these days: "Athens and Sparta, which made the ancient laws and had such civil order, gave only hints of the good life compared to you, who make such fine provisions that the threads you've spun but in October do not survive to mid-November. How many times within your memory have you changed laws, coinage, offices, as well as customs, and renewed your members?"

Unlike Tolkien's orcs, Milton's devils are capable of "firm concord" (2.497) and even harmony which "Suspended Hell and took with ravishment / The thronging audience" (2.554-555). And the latter is in direct contrast to the rebellion of Melkor in Tolkien's creation story.

For this one, I'm alternating Sayers and the Hollanders.