John Milton famous 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.
-- John Milton

#Gratitude #Forever #Everyday

He who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
-- John Milton

#Book #Reading #Reason

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.
-- John Milton

#Life #Book #Soul

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.
-- John Milton

#Book #Reading #Spirit

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

#Courage #Revenge #Hate

What hath night to do with sleep?
-- John Milton

#Sleep #Night #Insomnia

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
-- John Milton

#Freedom #Giving #Liberty

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

#Faith #Angel #Wings

Loneliness is the first thing which God's eye named not good.
-- John Milton

#Lonely #Loneliness #Eye

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.
-- John Milton

#Nature #Air #Years

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, in every gesture dignity and love.
-- John Milton

#Love #Romantic #Eye

Innocence, Once Lost, Can Never Be Regained. Darkness, Once Gazed Upon, Can Never Be Lost.
-- John Milton

#Darkness #Innocence #Lost

Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
-- John Milton

#Light #Long #Way

Biochemically, love is just like eating large amounts of chocolate.
-- John Milton

#Love #Love Is #Chocolate

The martyrs shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness.
-- John Milton

#Darkness #Weakness #Martyr

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence.
-- John Milton

#Mother #Art #Eye

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.
-- John Milton

#Light #Darkness #Horror

Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.
-- John Milton

#Death #Keys #Memorial

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.
-- John Milton

#Happiness #Inspiring #Heaven

Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep...
-- John Milton

#Hate #Lucifer #Grows

Govern well thy appetite, lest Sin surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.
-- John Milton

#Food #Black #Sin

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.
-- John Milton

#Running #Dust #Race

Farewell happy fields, Where joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors, hail.
-- John Milton

#Happiness #Farewell #Joy

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
-- John Milton

#Loss #Men #Eden

Accuse not nature: she hath done her part; Do thou but thine.
-- John Milton

#Nature #Done #Environment

The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.
-- John Milton

#Time #Morning #Men

Innumerable as the stars of night, Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
-- John Milton

#Morning #Stars #Flower

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

#God #Men #Night

Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than War.
-- John Milton

#Life #War #Victory

One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams.
-- John Milton

#Dream #Drinking #Alcohol

To live a life half dead, a living death.
-- John Milton

#Half

Consider first, that great or bright infers not excellence.
-- John Milton

#Excellence #Firsts

Our torments also may in length of time Become our Elements.
-- John Milton

#Time #Elements #May

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

#Love #Inspirational #Knowledge

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

#Moon #Light #Sea

Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.
-- John Milton

#Powerful #Military #War

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

#Beautiful #Coins #Bliss

The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
-- John Milton

#Eden #Hands #Steps

Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.
-- John Milton

#May #Wonder #Solemnity

What is strength without a double share of wisdom?
-- John Milton

#Inspirational #Motivational #Share

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.
-- John Milton

#Perfection #Parent #Grace

He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
-- John Milton

#Inspirational #Motivational #Positive

To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.
-- John Milton

#Able #Bears #Blind

Ink is the blood of the printing-press.
-- John Milton

#Blood #Ink #Printing

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
-- John Milton

#Music #Sweet #Lying

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

#Inspirational #Self Esteem #Self Respect

Don't hold grudges; it's pointless. Jealousy too is a non-cathartic, negative emotion. .
-- John Milton

#Jealousy #Negative #Emotion

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

#Life #Patience #Integrity

Luck is the residue of design.
-- John Milton

#Life #Design #Luck

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.
-- John Milton

#Mind #Of My Mind

Solitude sometimes is best society.
-- John Milton

#Solitude #Companionship #Sometimes

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

#Lonely #Stars #Lying

Now the bright morning-star, Day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire! Woods and groves are of thy dressing; Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
-- John Milton

#Song #Morning #Stars

O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, dungeon or beggary, or decrepit age! Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, and all her various objects of delight annulled, which might in part my grief have eased. Inferior to the vilest now become of man or worm; the vilest here excel me, they creep, yet see; I, dark in light, exposed to daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong, within doors, or without, still as a fool, in power of others, never in my own; scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.
-- John Milton

#Grief #Loss #Dark

To be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering.
-- John Milton

#Suffering #Weakness #Miserable

Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.
-- John Milton

#Fall #Lucifer #Arise

What if Earth be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein - each other like, more than on Earth is thought?
-- John Milton

#Heaven #What If #Shadow

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.
-- John Milton

#Trials #World #Innocence

Unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing.
-- John Milton

#Years #Wings #Age

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.
-- John Milton

#Light #Envy #Shining

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.
-- John Milton

#Light #Waiting #Darkness

Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled.
-- John Milton

#Hurt #Unjust #May

Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still To give us only good; and if the night Have gathered aught of evil or concealed, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.
-- John Milton

#Dark #Night #Light

Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds.
-- John Milton

#Sweet #Morning #Bird

The timely dew of sleep Now falling with soft slumb'rous weight inclines Our eyelids.
-- John Milton

#Fall #Sleep #Dew

Capricious, wanton, bold, and brutal Lust Is meanly selfish; when resisted, cruel; And, like the blast of Pestilential Winds, Taints the sweet bloom of Nature's fairest forms.
-- John Milton

#Sweet #Selfish #Wind

New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large.
-- John Milton

#Priests

Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view.
-- John Milton

#Views #Theatre #Cedars

How often from the steep Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive each to other's note, Singing their great Creator?
-- John Milton

#Air #Voice #Singing

Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed.
-- John Milton

#Work #Men #Mind

But hail thou Goddess sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy, Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue.
-- John Milton

#Sight #Views #Black

Antichrist is Mammon's son.
-- John Milton

#Son #Antichrist

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

#Men #Thinking #Regulation

Therefore God's universal law Gave to the man despotic power Over his female in due awe, Not from that right to part an hour, Smile she or lour.
-- John Milton

#Men #Law #Female

But O yet more miserable! Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.
-- John Milton

#Moving #Misery #Miserable

Nor from hell One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place.
-- John Milton

#Steps #Hell

Sweet bird that shunn'st the nose of folly, Most musical, most melancholy! Thee, chauntress, oft, the woods among, I woo, to hear thy even-song.
-- John Milton

#Song #Sweet #Bird

Impostor; do not charge most innocent Nature, As if she would her children should be riotous With her abundance; she, good cateress, Means her provision only to the good, That live according to her sober laws, And holy dictate of spare temperance.
-- John Milton

#Children #Mean #Law

O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still; Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.
-- John Milton

#Heart #May #Woods

Rich and various gems inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep.
-- John Milton

#Ocean #Rich #Various

The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving.
-- John Milton

#Running #Voice #Dumb

A limbo large and broad, since call'd The Paradise of Fools to few unknown.
-- John Milton

#Paradise #Fool #Broads

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.
-- John Milton

#Men #Redemption #Unjust

So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse Met ever, and to shameful silence brought, Yet gives not o'er though desperate of success.
-- John Milton

#Perseverance #Giving #Silence

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

#Cells #Inspire #Pale

Ride the air In whirlwind.
-- John Milton

#Air #Whirlwind

O madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.
-- John Milton

#Strong #Wine #Thinking

But when Lust By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, But most by lewd and lavish arts of sin, Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion, Imbodies and imbrutes, till she quite lose The divine property of her first being.
-- John Milton

#Art #Soul #Lust

So little knows Any, but God alone, but perverts best things To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.
-- John Milton

#Abuse #Use #Littles

Fame, if not double fac'd, is double mouth'd, And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.
-- John Milton

#Names #Wings #White

O why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest heav'n With Spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men as angels without feminine, Or find some other way to generate Mankind?
-- John Milton

#Wise #Angel #Men

Thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers.
-- John Milton

#Moving #Numbers

For Spirits when they please Can either sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their airy purposes, And works of love or enmity fulfil.
-- John Milton

#Sex #Essence #Purpose

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones Forget not.
-- John Milton

#Father #Lying #Mountain

But that from us aught should ascend to Heav'n So prevalent as to concern the mind Of God, high-bless'd, or to incline His will, Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer.
-- John Milton

#Prayer #Mind #May

Meanwhile the Adversary of God and man, Satan with thoughts inflamed of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight.
-- John Milton

#Men #Wings #Design

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

#Land #Share #Vain

Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, Nods and Becks and wreathèd Smiles.
-- John Milton

#Wreaths #Crank #Quip

Dim eclipse, disastrous twilight.
-- John Milton

#Twilight #Eclipse

Wherefore did he [God] create passions within us, pleasures round about us, but that these rightly tempered are the very ingredients of virtue?
-- John Milton

#Passion #Ingredients #Virtue