John Milton Quotes

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.

Even the demons are encouraged when their chief is "not lost in loss itself.

Freely we serve
Because we freely love, as in our will
To love or not; in this we stand or fall.

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..

Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.

Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king.

He who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained the utmost prospect of reformation that the mortal glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific vision, that man by this very opinion declares that he is yet far short of truth.

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.

I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.

Here at last
We shall be free;
the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

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.

Be strong, live happy and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
His great command!

No man [...] can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself.

Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear

Consult.../what reinforcement we may gain from hope,/If not, what resolution from despair.

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 row
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.

Our state cannot be severed, we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.

Henceforth an individual solace dear;
Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim
My other half: with that thy gentle hand
Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see
How beauty is excelld by manly grace.