Quotes from John Milton

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

Th' imperial ensign, which, full high advanc'd,Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind.

For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.

Come, knit hands, and beat the ground,In a light fantastic round.

All hell broke loose.

Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.

God is decreeing to begin some new and great period in His Church, even to the reforming of Reformation itself: what does He then but reveal Himself to His servants, and as His manner is, first to His Englishmen?

Live while ye may,Yet happy pair.

As killing as the canker to the rose.

To sit in darkness hereHatching vain empires.

Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul And lap it in Elysium.

The angel ended, and in Adam's earSo charming left his voice that he awhileThought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear.

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

Was I deceiv'd or did a sable cloudTurn forth her silver lining on the night?

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

The palpable obscure.

And add to these retired Leisure,That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.

Hence vain deluding Joys,The brood of Folly without father bred!

The sun to me is darkAnd silent as the moon,When she deserts the night,Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

When I consider how my light is spent,Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodg'd with me useless.

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

At whose sight all the starsHide their diminish'd heads.

Govern well thy appetite, lest Sin Surprise thee, and her black attendant, Death.

A thousand fantasiesBegin to throng into my memory,Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire,And airy tongues that syllable men's namesOn sands and shores and desert wildernesses.