John Milton Quotes & Sayings

To whom the wilie Adder, blithe and glad. — John Milton

Apostate, still thou err'st, nor end wilt find
Offering, from the paths of truth remote. — John Milton

They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness. — John Milton

Subdue By force, who reason for their law refuse, Right reason for their law. — John Milton

The wife, where danger or dishonor lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays, who guards her, or with her the worst endures. — John Milton

So glistered the dire Snake , and into fraud Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the Tree Of Prohibition, root of all our woe. — John Milton

In loving thou dost well, in passion not,
Wherein true love consists not: Love refines
The thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his seat
In reason, and is judicious — John Milton

If it come to prohibiting, there is aught more likely to be prohibited than truth itself. — John Milton

He 's gone, and who knows how he may report Thy words by adding fuel to the flame? — John Milton

For beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive. Cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abash'd. — John Milton

And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, consult how we may henceforth most offend. — John Milton

Wisdom's self oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, where with her best nurse Contemplation, she plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings that in the various bustle of resort were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. — John Milton

Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? — John Milton

How gladly would I meet mortality, my sentence, and be earth in sensible! How glad would lay me down, as in my mother's lap! There I should rest, and sleep secure. — John Milton

First there was Chaos,
the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea,
dark, wasteful, wild. — John Milton

Heaven open'd wide Her ever during gates, harmonious sound, On golden hinges moving. — John Milton

Part of my soul I seek thee, and claim thee my other half — John Milton

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. — John Milton

Faithful found among the faithless. — John Milton

God does not need man nor his won works. — John Milton

Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb
The secrets of your realm, but by constraint
Wand'Ring this darksome desert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heav'n; or if som other place
From your Dominion won, th' Ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive
I travel this profound, direct my course;
Directed no mean recompence it brings
To your behoof, if I that Region lost,
All usurpation then expelled, reduce
To her original darkness and your sway
(Which is my present journey) and once more
Erect the Standard there of ancient Night;
Yours be th' advantage all, mine the revenge.
970-987 — John Milton

Chaos umpire sits And by decision more embroils the fray by which he reigns: next him high arbiter Chance governs all. — John Milton

How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence through the empty-vaulted night, At every fall smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it smiled! — John Milton

But hail thou Goddess sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy, Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue. — John Milton

We read not that Christ ever exercised force but once; and that was to drive profane ones out of his Temple, not to force them in. — John Milton

The best apology against false accusers is silence. — John Milton

Let none admire that riches grow in hell; that soil may best deserve the precious bane. — John Milton

Only this I know, That one celestial father gives to all. — John Milton

When a king sets himself to bandy against the highest court and residence of all regal powers, he then, in the single person of a man, fights against his own majesty and kingship. — John Milton

Thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers. — John Milton

Solitude sometimes is best society. — John Milton

Virtue, which breaks through opposition and all temptation can remove, most shines, and most is acceptable above. — John Milton

And if by prayer Incessant I could hope to change the will Of Him who all things can, I would not cease To weary Him with my assiduous cries. — John Milton

Now I see Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste. — John Milton

What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste? — John Milton

Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more. — John Milton

Ah, much deluded! lay aside
Thy threats, and anger misapplied!
Art not afraid with sounds like these
To offend, where thou canst not appease?
Death is not (wherefore dream'st thou thus?)
The son of night and Erebus:
Not was of fell Erynnis born
On gulfs where Chaos rules forlorn.
But sent from God, his presence leaves,
To gather home his ripen'd sheaves,
To call encumber'd souls away
From fleshly bonds to boundless day,
(As when the winged hours excited,
And summon forth the morning light)
And each to convoy to her place
Before the Eternal Father's face. — John Milton

In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread,
Till thou return unto the ground; for thou
Out of the ground wast taken; know thy birth,
For dust thou art, and shalt to dust return. — John Milton

So spake the Son, and into terrour chang'd His count'nance too severe to be beheld And full of wrauth bent on his Enemies. — John Milton

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death. — John Milton

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them ... I know they are as lively and as vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. — John Milton

Ye cannot make us now lesse capable, lesse knowing, lesse eagarly pursuing of the Truth, unlesse ye first make yourselves that made us so, lesse the lovers, lesse the founders of our true Liberty. We can grow ignorant again, brutish, formall, and slavish as ye found us, but you then must first become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannous as they were from whom ye have free'd us. — John Milton

I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble Education; laborious indeed at first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming. — John Milton

His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command. Ibid. — John Milton

Heav'nly love shall outdoo Hellish hate — John Milton

How wearisom
Eternity so spent in worship paid
To whom we hate. Let us not then pursue
By force impossible, by leave obtain'd
Unacceptable, though in Heav'n, our state
Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek
Our own good from our selves, and from our own
Live to our selves, though in this vast recess,
Free, and to none accountable, preferring
Hard liberty before the easie yoke
Of servile Pomp — John Milton

Infinity is a dark illimitable ocean, without bound. — John Milton

Spirits when they please Can either sex assume, or both. — John Milton

United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise. — John Milton

So spake the Seraph Abdiel faithful found,
Among the faithless, faithful only hee;
Among innumerable false, unmov'd,
Unshak'n, unseduc'd, unterrifi'd
His Loyaltie he kept, his Love, his Zeale;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind
Though single. From amidst them forth he passd,
Long way through hostile scorn, which he susteind
Superior, nor of violence fear'd aught;
And with retorted scorn his back he turn'd
On those proud Towrs to swift destruction doom'd. — John Milton

The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. — John Milton

Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast
Is open? or will God incense his ire
For such a petty trespass? and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue, whom the pain
Of death denounced, whatever thing death be,
Deterred not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how just? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not just, not God: not feared then, nor obeyed:
Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
Why then was this forbid? Why, but to awe;
Why, but to keep ye low and ignorant,
His worshippers? He knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes, that seem so clear,
Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then
Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as gods,
Knowing both good and evil, as they know. — John Milton

They also serve who only stand and wait. — John Milton

Then there was war in heaven. But it was not angels. It was that small golden zeppelin, like a long oval world, high up. It seemed as if the cosmic order were gone, as if there had come a new order, a new heavens above us: and as if the world in anger were trying to revoke it. — John Milton

Heaven, the seat of bliss, Brooks not the works of violence and war. — John Milton

For what can war, but endless war, still breed? — John Milton

The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him. — John Milton

And some are fall'n, to disobedience fall'n, And so from Heav'n to deepest Hell; O fall From what high state of bliss into what woe! — John Milton

With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears. — John Milton

Ere the blabbing eastern scout, The nice morn, on th' Indian steep From her cabin'd loop-hole peep. — John Milton

Courtesy which oft is found in lowly sheds, with smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls and courts of princes, where it first was named. — John Milton

He who receives
Light from above, from the Fountain of Light,
No other doctrine needs, though granted true;
But these are false, or little else but dreams,
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm. — John Milton

But when Lust By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, But most by lewd and lavish arts of sin, Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion, Imbodies and imbrutes, till she quite lose The divine property of her first being. — John Milton

Reason also is choice. — John Milton

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence. — John Milton

The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving. — John Milton

As to my blindness, I would rather have mine, if it be necessary, than either theirs, More or yours. — John Milton

'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. — John Milton

But God himself is truth; in propagating which, as men display a greater integrity and zeal, they approach nearer to the similitude of God, and possess a greater portion of his love. — John Milton

What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support,
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men. 1
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 22. — John Milton

I fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print upon our necks: the ghost of a linnen decency yet haunts us. — John Milton

Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love In blissful solitude. — John Milton

Aristotle ... imputed this symphony of the heavens ... this music of the spheres to Pythagorus ... But Pythagoras alone of mortals is said to have heard this harmony ... If our hearts were as pure, as chaste, as snowy as Pythagoras' was, our ears would resound and be filled with that supremely lovely music of the wheeling stars. — John Milton

Neither prosperity nor empire nor heaven can be worth winning at the price of a virulent temper, bloody hands, an anguished spirit, and a vain hatred of the rest of the world. — John Milton

What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid?. — John Milton

For truth is strong next to the Almighty. She needs no policies or stratagems or licensings to make her victorious. These are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power. — John Milton

Then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess A Paradise within thee, happier far. — John Milton

Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself. — John Milton

The happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy
Rather inflames thy torment, representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable;
So never more in Hell than when in Heaven. — John Milton

Hide me from day's garish eye. — John Milton

The griding sword with discontinuous wound Pass'd through him, but th' Ethereal substance clos'd Not long divisible, and from the gash A stream of Nectarous humor issuing flow'd Sanguin, such as Celestial Spirits may bleed, And all his Armour staind ere while so bright. — John Milton

The timely dew of sleep Now falling with soft slumb'rous weight inclines Our eyelids. — John Milton

Th' Angelic Guards ascended, mute and sad For Man, for of his state by this they knew, Much wondring how the suttle Fiend had stoln Entrance unseen. Soon as th' unwelcome news From Earth arriv'd at Heaven Gate, displeas'd All were who heard, dim sadness did not spare That time Celestial visages, yet mixt With pitie, violated not thir bliss. — John Milton

Fear of change perplexes monarchs. — John Milton

Yet much remains To conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned then war, new foes arise Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains: Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw. — John Milton

Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. — John Milton

How charming is divine Philosophy!
Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfet raigns. — John Milton

Eloquence the soul, song charms the senses. — John Milton

One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams. — John Milton

Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than war. — John Milton

He that hath light within their own breast, may sit in the centre and enjoy bright day. — John Milton

Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss — John Milton

Where no hope is left, is left no fear. — John Milton

The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day. — John Milton

For Man to tell how human life began is hard; for who himself beginning knew? — John Milton

Luck is the residue of design. — John Milton

All hope is lost of my reception into grace; what worse? For where no hope is left, is left no fear. — John Milton

This manner of writing wherein knowing myself inferior to myself? I have the use, as I may account it, but of my left hand. — John Milton

Where the bright seraphim in burning row
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow. — John Milton

[Censors] rake through the entrails of many an old good author, with a violation worse than any could be offered to his tomb. — John Milton