John Milton
124 quotes
Biography
"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.."
"For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them."
"Freely we serveBecause we freely love, as in our willTo love or not; in this we stand or fall."
"Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n."
"I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words."
"Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear"
"What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,The labor of an age in pilèd stones,Or that his hallowed relics should be hidUnder a star-y-pointing pyramid?Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?"
"Yet he who reigns within himself, and rulesPassions, desires, and fears, is more a king."
"And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,That kings for such a tomb would wish to die."
"Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie."
"Where the bright seraphim in burning rowTheir loud uplifted angel trumpets blow."
"Our state cannot be severed, we are one,One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself."
"Is it true, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer the most?That the strongest wander furthest and most hopelessly are lost?That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain?That the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?"
"Here at lastWe shall be free;the Almighty hath not builtHere for his envy, will not drive us hence:Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition though in Hell:Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."
"And looks commercing with the skies,Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes."
"The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection."
"Only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith; Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love, By name to come called charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise; but shalt possess A paradise within thee, happier far."
"Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy,"
"A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him."
"By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die."
"He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem."
"His words ... like so many nimble and airy servitors trip about him at command."
"So little care they of beasts to make them men, that by their sorcerous doctrine of formalities, they take the way to transform them out of Christian men into judaizing beasts. Had they but taught the land, or suffered it to be taught, as Christ would it should have been in all plenteous dispensation of the word, then the poor mechanic might have so accustomed his ear to good teaching, as to have discerned between faithful teachers and false. But now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people's eyes, reproach them of their blindness; just as the Pharisees their true fathers were wont, who could not endure that the people should be thought competent judges of Christ's doctrine, although we know they judged far better than those great rabbis: yet “this people,” said they, “that know not the law is accursed.”"
"Truth...never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth."
"Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live."