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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

And God made two great lights, great for their use
To man, the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night, altern.

Of herbs, and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses.

I went into the temple, there to hear
The teachers of our law, and to propose
What might improve my knowledge or their own.

Paradise Regained (1671)

Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles,
Nods and Becks and wreathèd Smiles.

L'Allegro (1631)

In vain doth valour bleed,
While Avarice and Rapine share the land.

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

Fate shall yield
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife.

My latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!

And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs.

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful jollity,
Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathèd smiles.

L'Allegro (1631)

Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
Harpies and Hydras.

Comus (1637)

That moly
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.

Comus (1637)

And, weaponless himself,
Made arms ridiculous.

Samson Agonistes (1671)

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy

At a Solemn Music (1637)

Ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence.

Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou fair Moon,
That wont'st to love the traveller's benison,
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,
And disinherit Chaos.

Comus (1637)

Consider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors: a Nation not slow and dull, but of quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that humane capacity can soar to.

Aeropagitica (1644)

Well observe
The rule of Not too much, by temperance taught
In what thou eat'st and drink'st.

O Conscience, into what abyss of fears
And horrors hast thou driven me, out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged.

And sing to those that hold the vital shears;
And turn the adamantine spindle round,
On which the fate of gods and men is wound.

Attribution

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