Quotes from Areopagitica — John Milton
1608–1674 England
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7 quotes
A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Areopagitica (1644)
Who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers?
Areopagitica (1644)
Who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?
Areopagitica (1644)
Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.
Areopagitica (1644)
A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.
Areopagitica (1644)
Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny 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.
Areopagitica (1644)
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.
Areopagitica (1644)