Quotes from John Milton

What never yet was heard in tale or song,From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.

Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?

Skill'd to retire, and in retiring drawHearts after them tangled in amorous nets.

The hell within him.

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

So saying, with dispatchful looks in hasteShe turns, on hospitable thoughts intent.

The first and wisest of them all professedTo know this only, that he nothing knew.

And every shepherd tells his taleUnder the hawthorn in the dale.

And out of good still to find means of evil.

Pandemonium, city and proud seatOf Lucifer.

So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore, Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.

So absolute she seemsAnd in herself complete, so well to knowHer own, that what she wills to do or say,Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.

That powerWhich erring men call Chance.

A heaven on earth.

Suspense in news is torture.

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.

Accuse not nature, she hath done her partDo thou but thine, and be not diffidentOf wisdom, she deserts thee not, if thouDismiss not her, when most thou needest her nigh,By attributing overmuch to thingsLess excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.

Adam inquires concerning celestial motions, is doubtfully answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge.

And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, consult how we may henceforth most offend.

But wherefore thou alone Wherefore with theeCame not all hell broke loose Is pain to themLess pain, less to be fled, or thou than theyLess hardy to endure Courageous chief,The first in flight from pain, hadst thou allegedTo thy deserted host this cause of flight,Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.

Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, sober steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, flowing with majestic train.

He also serves who only stands and waits.

He who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.

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