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John Milton Quotes

1608–1674 England

John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is most famous for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse.

England
Essayists
Philosophers
Poets
Theologians

Also known as: Milton, Milton, John, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

Random John Milton quote

502 quotes

Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.

Tractate of Education (1644)

For spirits that live throughout
Vital in every part, not as frail man,
In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins,
Cannot but by annihilating die.

Peor and Baälim
Forsake their temples dim.

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629)

And grace that won who saw to wish her stay.

When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless.

On His Blindness (1652)

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.

The never-ending flight
Of future days.

They also serve who only stand and wait.

Imparadis'd in one another's arms.

It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit,
Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit,
That woman's love can win, or long inherit;
But what it is, hard is to say,
Harder to hit.

Samson Agonistes (1671)

Oh, shame to men! devil with devil damn'd
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational.

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark! total eclipse,
Without all hope of day.

Samson Agonistes (1671)

License they mean when they cry, Liberty!
For who loves that must first be wise and good.

Abashed the Devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely.
—saw, and pined his loss.

Say, heavenly pow'rs, where shall we find such love?
Which of ye will be mortal to redeem
Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save.

The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.

That in our proper motion we ascend
Up to our native seat; descent and fall
To us is adverse.

From haunted spring and dale
Edged with poplar pale
The parting genius is with sighing sent.

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629)

Ascend, I follow thee, safe guide, the path
Thou lead'st me, and to the hand of heav'n submit.

He hears
On all sides, from innumerable tongues
A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public scorn.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Milton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.