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John Milton on Valentine's Day

1608–1674 England

← All quotes by John Milton

20 quotes

Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring.

And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

L'Allegro (1631)

She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods.

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

Yet beauty, tho' injurious, hath strange power,
After offence returning, to regain
Love once possess'd.

Samson Agonistes (1671)

Beauty stands in the admiration only of weak minds led captive.

Paradise Regained (1671)

Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,
That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won.

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing.

Beauty is Nature's coin, must not be hoarded,
But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss.

Comus (1637)

Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces.

Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workmanship.

Comus (1637)

So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life.

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)

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

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.

And ladies of the Hesperides, that seemed
Fairer than feign'd of old.

Paradise Regained (1671)

In naked beauty more adorned
More lovely than Pandora.

Such sober certainty of waking bliss.

... for beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive. Cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,
At every sudden slighting quite abash'd.

Paradise Regained (1671)

Attribution

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