diff --git a/Michelf/Markdown.php b/Michelf/Markdown.php
index 746a2d04..9fed2c96 100644
--- a/Michelf/Markdown.php
+++ b/Michelf/Markdown.php
@@ -119,6 +119,14 @@ public static function defaultTransform(string $text): string {
 	 */
 	public bool $enhanced_ordered_list = false;
 
+	/**
+	 * Maximum nesting depth of blockquotes. Deeper ">" markers are output
+	 * as text. Each level of nesting re-processes and re-indents everything
+	 * inside it, so without a limit a few kilobytes of ">" characters take
+	 * gigabytes of memory. Set to 0 for no limit.
+	 */
+	public int $max_blockquote_depth = 32;
+
 	/**
 	 * Parser implementation
 	 */
@@ -180,6 +188,11 @@ public function __construct() {
 	 */
 	protected bool $in_emphasis_processing = false;
 
+	/**
+	 * Nesting depth of the blockquote currently being processed.
+	 */
+	protected int $blockquote_depth = 0;
+
 	/**
 	 * Called before the transformation process starts to setup parser states.
 	 * @return void
@@ -191,6 +204,7 @@ protected function setup() {
 		$this->html_hashes = array();
 		$this->in_anchor   = false;
 		$this->in_emphasis_processing = false;
+		$this->blockquote_depth = 0;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -1421,6 +1435,11 @@ protected function doItalicsAndBold($text) {
 	 * @return string
 	 */
 	protected function doBlockQuotes($text) {
+		if ($this->max_blockquote_depth > 0 &&
+			$this->blockquote_depth >= $this->max_blockquote_depth) {
+			return $text;
+		}
+
 		$text = preg_replace_callback('/
 			  (								# Wrap whole match in $1
 				(?>
@@ -1445,7 +1464,9 @@ protected function _doBlockQuotes_callback($matches) {
 		$bq = $matches[1];
 		// trim one level of quoting - trim whitespace-only lines
 		$bq = preg_replace('/^[ ]*>[ ]?|^[ ]+$/m', '', $bq);
+		$this->blockquote_depth++;
 		$bq = $this->runBlockGamut($bq); // recurse
+		$this->blockquote_depth--;
 
 		$bq = preg_replace('/^/m', "  ", $bq);
 		// These leading spaces cause problem with <pre> content,
diff --git a/test/unit/MarkdownBlockQuoteTest.php b/test/unit/MarkdownBlockQuoteTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8aae27cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/MarkdownBlockQuoteTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+<?php
+
+class MarkdownBlockQuoteTest extends \PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase
+{
+	/**
+	 * Deepest nesting of blockquotes in the HTML
+	 */
+	private static function blockQuoteDepth(string $html): int
+	{
+		$depth = $deepest = 0;
+		preg_match_all('{<(/?)blockquote>}', $html, $tags);
+		foreach ($tags[1] as $closing) {
+			$depth += $closing === '' ? 1 : -1;
+			$deepest = max($deepest, $depth);
+		}
+		return $deepest;
+	}
+
+	public function deepBlockQuotes(): array
+	{
+		return array(
+			'markers' => array(str_repeat('>', 2000) . ' x'),
+			'markers with spaces' => array(str_repeat('> ', 2000) . 'x'),
+			'one level more per line' => array(implode("\n", array_map(function ($i) {
+				return str_repeat('>', $i) . ' x';
+			}, range(1, 300)))),
+			'in a list item' => array("- a\n\n    " . str_repeat('>', 2000) . ' x'),
+		);
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * @dataProvider deepBlockQuotes
+	 */
+	public function testNestingIsLimited(string $text)
+	{
+		// without the limit, these need from hundreds of megabytes to gigabytes of memory
+		foreach (array(new \Michelf\Markdown(), new \Michelf\MarkdownExtra()) as $parser) {
+			$html = $parser->transform($text);
+			$this->assertSame($parser->max_blockquote_depth, self::blockQuoteDepth($html));
+		}
+	}
+
+	public function testMarkersBeyondTheLimitAreText()
+	{
+		$parser = new \Michelf\Markdown();
+		$parser->max_blockquote_depth = 2;
+
+		$this->assertSame(
+			"<blockquote>\n  <blockquote>\n    <p>> x</p>\n  </blockquote>\n</blockquote>",
+			trim($parser->transform('>>> x'))
+		);
+		$this->assertSame(
+			"<blockquote>\n  <blockquote>\n    <p>y</p>\n  </blockquote>\n</blockquote>",
+			trim($parser->transform('>> y')),
+			'the depth starts again at 0 for each transformation'
+		);
+	}
+
+	public function testLimitCanBeDisabled()
+	{
+		$parser = new \Michelf\Markdown();
+		$parser->max_blockquote_depth = 0;
+
+		$this->assertSame(150, self::blockQuoteDepth($parser->transform(str_repeat('>', 150) . ' x')));
+	}
+}