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He that has light within his own cleer brest
May sit i'th center, and enjoy bright day,
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day Sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.

— John Milton

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Source: "A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634," lines 380–84, republished in The Works of John Milton (1931), vol. 1, part 1, p. 99. The title was changed to "Comus" for the stage version in 1737.
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by John Milton

The end of learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love Him and imitate Him.

None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.

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Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.

The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643)

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

Accuse not Nature, she hath done her part; do thou but thine.

Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd.

Paradise Regained (1671)

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.

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Topics

Good and Evil

More quotes by John Milton

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three (1631)

A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.

The Reason of Church Government (1641)

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.

Paradise Lost (1667)

He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.

Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)

Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Milton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.