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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

If all the world
Should in a pet of temp'rance, feed on pulse,
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,
Th' All-giver would be unthank'd, would be unprais'd.

Comus (1637)

Inflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.

Tractate of Education (1644)

Enflamed with the study of learning, and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men, and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race:
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping Hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross.

Adam, well may we labour, still to dress
This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower.

O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!

Samson Agonistes (1671)

It is for homely features to keep home.
They had their name thence.

Comus (1637)

But O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.

Samson Agonistes (1671)

Who can enjoy alone?
Or all enjoying what contentment find?

The work under our labour grows
Luxurious by restraint.

But what will not ambition and revenge
Descend to? who aspires must down as low
As high he soar'd, obnoxious first or last
To basest things.

Th' imperial ensign, which, full high advanc'd,
Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind.
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,
Seraphic arms and trophies.

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 surfeit reigns.

So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;
Evil, be thou my good.

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

He seemed
For dignity compos'd and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow.

Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

Comus (1637)

Then purg'd with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see.

Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east.

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world.

Lycidas (1637)

Attribution

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