Quotes from John Milton

Ah, why should all mankind For one mans fault thus guiltless be condemn'd, If guiltless? But

His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength,   And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;   That all the Angels and aethereal Powers—   They now, and men hereafter—may discern   From what consummate virtue I have chose   This perfet man, by merit called my Son,   To earn salvation for the sons of men.     So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven   Admiring stood a space;

Let us not then suspect our happie State   Left so imperfet by the Maker wise,   As not secure to single or combin'd.   Fraile is our happiness, if this be so,   And EDEN were no EDEN thus expos'd.

The towers of Heaven are filled With armed watch that render all access Impregnable,; oft on the bordering deep Encamp their legions or with obscure wing Scout far and wide into the realm of night, Scorning surprise.

Sulphurous and Nitrous Foame   They found, they mingl'd, and with suttle Art,   Concocted and adusted they reduc'd   To blackest grain, and into store conveyd:   Part hidd'n veins diggd up (nor hath this Earth   Entrails unlike) of Mineral and Stone

All the sanctities of Heaven Stood thick as stars...

For indeed none can love freedom heartily, but good men: the rest love not freedom, but license: which never hath more scope, or more indulgence than under tyrants.

With borrowed light her countenance triform Hence fills and empties to enlighten the earth, And in her pale dominion checks the night.

Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King:

Unfast'ns: on a sudden op'n flie With impetuous recoile and jarring sound Th' infernal dores, and on thir hinges great Harsh Thunder, that the lowest bottom shook Of Erebus. She op'nd, but to shut Excel'd her power; the Gates wide op'n

The mind is its own place and in itself [255] Can make a Heaven of hell, a hell of Heaven.

Doctrin which we would know whence learnt: who saw   When this creation was? rememberst thou   Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being?   We know no time when we were not as now;   Know none before us, self-begot, self-rais'd   By our own quick'ning power, when fatal course   Had circl'd his full Orbe, the birth mature   Of this our native Heav'n, Ethereal Sons.

Pensive I sate me down; there gentle sleep   First found me, and with soft oppression seis'd   My droused sense, untroubl'd, though I thought   I then was passing to my former state   Insensible, and forthwith to dissolve:

till we end In dust, our final rest and native home...

With Goddess-like demeanour forth she went;   Not unattended, for on her as Queen   A pomp of winning Graces waited still,   And from about her shot Darts of desire   Into all Eyes to wish her still in sight.

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded; and Heav'n Gates Pourd out by millions her victorious Bands Pursuing. I upon my Frontieres here Keep

Amid the Garden by the Tree of Life,   Remember what I warne thee, shun to taste,   And shun the bitter consequence: for know,   The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command   Transgrest, inevitably thou shalt dye;   From that day mortal, and this happie State   Shalt loose, expell'd from hence into a World   Of woe and sorrow. Sternly

May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from Eternitie, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. Or

First Moloch, horrid king besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears, Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud [395] Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire

But of the tree whose operation brings Knowledge of good and ill, which I have set The pledge of thy obedience and thy faith, Amid the garden by the tree of life, Remember what I warn thee. Shun to taste. And shun the bitter consequence. For know, The day thou eatest thereof, my sole command Transgressed, inevitably thou shalt die, From that day mortal; and this happy state Shalt lose, expelled from hence into a world Of woe and sorrow.

Was I to have never parted from thy side? As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. Paradise Lost, Book IX, l. 1154

And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all Temples th'upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great Argument I may assert th'Eternal Providence, And justifie the ways of God to men.

What hath the night to do with sleep?

I was all ear, And took in strains that might create a soul Under the ribs of Death.