Quotes from John Milton

What if the Sun Be centre to the World, and other stars..... The planet earth, so steadfast though she seem, In sensibly three different motions move?

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.

This and the following Psalm were don by the Author at fifteen yeers old.

Say they who counsel war; 'we are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe; Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, What can we suffer worse?' Is this then worst, Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms? What when we fled amain, pursued and struck With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought The Deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse.

One fatal tree there stands of knowledge call'd Forbidden them to taste. Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord Envy them that? Can it be sin to know? Can it be death? And do they only stand By ignorance? Is that their happy state, The proof of their obedience and their faith?

Here at least We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

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

Yet some there be that by due steps aspire To lay their just hands on that golden key That opes the palace of Eternity. To such my errand is

Dark vaild Cotytto, t' whom the secret flame Of mid-night Torches burns; mysterious Dame That ne're art call'd, but when the Dragon woom Of Stygian darknes spets her thickest gloom, And makes one blot of all the ayr

Thus with the Year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summers Rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the chearful waies of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledg fair Presented with a Universal blanc Of Natures works to mee expung'd and ras'd, And wisdome at one entrance quite shut out.

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

Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos'd /Labor, as to debar when we need /Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,/ food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse/Of looks and smiles, for smiles from Reason flow,/To brutes denied, and are of Love the food, Love not the lowest end of human life. For not to irksome toil, but to delight/ He made us, and delight to reason join'd.

For who knows not that Truth is strong..; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licencings to make her victorious.

through our forwardness to suppress, and our backwardness to recover any enthralled piece of truth out of the gripe of custom, we care not to keep truth separated from truth, which is the fiercest rent and disunion of all.

of thee/ Pains only in child-bearing were foretold; soon recompensed with joy, fruit of thy womb

Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves, Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven To their own vile advantages shall turn Of lucre and ambition, and the truth With superstitions and traditions taint, Left only in those written records pure, Though not but by the spirit understood.

with ambitious aim against the throne and monarchy of God rais'd impious war in Heav'n and battel proud

God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts; who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.

but to create Is greater than created to destroy.

As to embrace me she inclined, I waked she fled and day brought back my night.

Myself my sepulcher, a moving grave, Buried, yet not exempt By privilege of death and burial From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs, But made hereby obnoxious To all the miseries of life.

Had anyone written and divulged erroneous things and scandalous to honest life, misusing and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason among men, if after conviction this only censure were adjudged him that he should never henceforth write

Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell! As he our darkness, cannot we his light Imitate when we please?

As to my blindness, I would rather have mine, if it be necessary, than either theirs, More or yours.