129 John Milton Quotes and sayings

John Milton was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. Here are some John Milton quotes.

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

“He who destroys a good book kills reason itself.”

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency 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.”

“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.”

“All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”

“What hath night to do with sleep?”

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

“O welcome pure-eyed Faith, white handed Hope, Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings.”

“Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named not good.”

John Milton Quotes

“In those vernal seasons of the year when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.”

“Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, in every gesture dignity and love.”

“Innocence, Once Lost, Can Never Be Regained. Darkness, Once Gazed Upon, Can Never Be Lost.”

“Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.”

“Biochemically, love is just like eating large amounts of chocolate.”

“The martyrs shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness.”

“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.”

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Best quotes by John Milton

“The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.”

“Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep…”

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.”

“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit/Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste/Brought death into the world, and all our woe,/With loss of Eden, till one greater Man/Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,/Sing heavenly muse”

“Accuse not nature: she hath done her part; Do thou but thine.”

“The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.”

“Innumerable as the stars of night, Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun Impearls on every leaf and every flower.”

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

“Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than War.”

“One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams.”

“To live a life half dead, a living death.”

“Consider first, that great or bright infers not excellence.”

john milton quotes and sayings

“Our torments also may in length of time Become our Elements.”

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

“Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.”

“Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.”

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

“Beauty is nature’s brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.”

“What is strength without a double share of wisdom?”

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“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.”

“He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.”

“To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.”

“Ink is the blood of the printing-press.”

“Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.”

“Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right.”

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“I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.”

“Luck is the residue of design.”

“Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.”

“Solitude sometimes is best society.”

“The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.”

“To be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering.”

“Awake, arise or be for ever fallen.”

“What if Earth be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein – each other like, more than on Earth is thought?”

“Assuredly we bring not innocence not the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.”

“Unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing.”

“When the new light which we beg for shines in upon us, there be [those] who envy and oppose, if it come not first in at their casements.”

“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light; Besides what hope the never-ending flight Of future days may bring, what chance, what change Worth waiting–since our present lot appears For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, If we procure not to ourselves more woe.”

“Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled.”

“Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds.”

“Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed.”

“If we think we regulate printing, thereby to rectify manners, we must regulate all regulations and pastimes, all that is delightful to man.”

“Rich and various gems inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep.”

“No mighty trance, or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.”

“Ride the air In whirlwind.”

“And the more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me.”

“Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply With our own hands his office on ourselves; Why stand we longer shivering under fears, That show no end but death, and have the power, Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, Destruction with destruction to destroy.”

John Milton quotes about life

“For to interpose a little ease, Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.”

“The great creator from his work returned Magnificent, his six days’ work, a world.”

“Promiscuous reading is necessary to the constituting of human nature. The attempt to keep out evil doctrine by licensing is like the exploit of that gallant man who thought to keep out the crows by shutting the park gate.”

“So much I feel my genial spirits droop, My hopes all flat, nature within me seems In her functions weary of herself.”

“When thou attended gloriously from heaven , Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send Thy summoning archangels to proclaim Thy dread tribunal.”

“To overcome in battle, and subdue Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch Of human glory.”

“Money brings honor, friends, conquest, and realms.”

“The greatest burden in the world is superstition, not only of ceremonies in the church, but of imaginary and scarecrow sins at home.”

“But now my task is smoothly done, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth’s end, Where the bow’d welkin slow doth bend, And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the Moon.”

“Necessity and chance Approach not me, and what I will is fate.”

“It was from out the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world.”

“United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise.”

“Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh Your change approaches, when all these delights Will vanish and deliver ye to woe, More woe, the more your taste is now of joy.”

“O when meet now Such pairs, in love and mutual honour joined?”

“Death to life is crown or shame.”

“Darkness now rose, as daylight sunk, and brought in low’ring Night her shadowy offspring.”

“Now the bright morning-star, day’s harbinger, comes dancing from the east.”

“No institution which does not continually test its ideals, techniques and measure of accomplishment can claim real vitality.”

“Let her (Truth) and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?”

“Courtesy which oft is found in lowly sheds, with smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls and courts of princes, where it first was named.”

Short quotes by John Milton

“Immediate are the acts of God, more swift than time or motion.”

“Beauty is God’s handwriting-a wayside sacrament.”

“Virtue that wavers is not virtue.”

“Tears such as angels weep.”

“Only this I know, That one celestial father gives to all.”

“Goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems.”

“The first and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew.”

“Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk.”

“Suffering for truth’s sake Is fortitude to highest victory, And to the faithful death the gate of life.”

“This is servitude, To serve the unwise.”

“Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgement to do aught, which else free will Would not admit.”

“Few sometimes may know, when thousands err.”

“Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.”

“Back to thy punishment, False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings.”

“Such joy ambition finds.”

“Among unequal what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?”

“What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe?”

“Eloquence the soul, song charms the senses.”

“Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed, which declares his dignity, And the regard of Heav’n on all his ways.”

“Thus I set my printless feet O’er the cowslip’s velvet head, That bends not as I tread.”

“Rather than be less Car’d not to be at all.”

“So he with difficulty and labour hard Mov’d on, with difficulty and labour he.”

“Dark with excessive bright.”

“Infinity is a dark illimitable ocean, without bound.”

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“Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.”

“If at great things thou would’st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.”

“Most men admire Virtue who follow not her lore.”

“Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive, Get riches first, get wealth.”

“Extol not riches then, the toil of fools, The wise man’s cumbrance, if not snare, more apt To slacken virtue, and abate her edge, Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.”

“Retiring from the popular noise, I seek This unfrequented place to find some ease.”

“A good principle not rightly understood may prove as hurtful as a bad.”

“Praise from an enemy smells of craft.”

“No worthy enterprise can be done by us without continual plodding and wearisomeness to our faint and sensitive abilities.”

“Where all life dies death lives.”

“Courage never to submit of yield.”

john milton quotes

“He who tempts, though in vain, at last asperses The tempted with dishonor foul, supposed Not incorruptible of faith, not proof Against temptation.”

“I must not quarrel with the will Of highest dispensation, which herein, Haply had ends above my reach to know.”

“And to thy husband’s will Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.”

“Equally inured by moderation either state to bear, prosperous or adverse.”

“There is nothing that making men rich and strong but that which they carry inside of them. True wealth is of the heart, not of the hand.”

“The sacred influence of light appears.”

“Those graceful acts, those thousand decencies, that daily flow from all her words and actions, mixed with love and sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned union of mind, or in us both one soul.”

“Let us no more contend, nor blame each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive, In offices of love, how we may lighten each other’s burden.”

“Come to the sunset tree! The day is past and gone; The woodman’s axe lies free, And the reaper’s work is done.”

“Mutual love, the crown of all our bliss.”

“Let us go forth and resolutely dare with sweat of brow to toil our little day.”

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