Quotes from John Milton

Day and night, Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost Shall hold their course, till fire purge all things new.

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

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloisters pale, And love the high embowed roof, With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight; Casting a dim religious light.

Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offence returning, to regain Love once possess'd.

He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

So glistered the dire Snake , and into fraud Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the Tree Of Prohibition, root of all our woe.

And on the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant.

Each tree Laden with fairest fruit, that hung to th' eye Tempting, stirr'd in me sudden appetite To pluck and eat.

The Tree of Knowledge grew fast by, Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill.

Smiles from reason flow, To brute deny'd, and are of love the food.

But what more oft in nations grown corrupt, And by their vices brought to servitude, Than to love bondage more than liberty, Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.

Mutual love, the crown of all our bliss.

Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love In blissful solitude.

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, With joy and love triumphing.

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest, Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven.

If it come to prohibiting, there is aught more likely to be prohibited than truth itself.

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

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.

For truth is strong next to the Almighty. She needs no policies or stratagems or licensings to make her victorious. These are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.

There is no truth sure enough to justify persecution.

Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones.

If there be any difference among professed believers as to the sense of Scripture, it is their duty to tolerate such difference in each other, until God shall have revealed the truth to all.

Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words To thy large heart give utterance due; thy heart; Contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.