John Milton Quotes

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Tractate of Education (1644)

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: L'Allegro (1631), Line 49

i.17-26
Paradise Lost (1667)
Context: 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 wayes of God to men.

i.254-255
Paradise Lost (1667)
Variant: The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
Source: Paradise Lost: Books 1-2

Source: Lycidas (1637), Line 14

On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-three, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Source: Areopagitica

The History of England, Book ii
Context: I neither oblige the belief of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. Nor have I stood with others computing or collating years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious about the time and circumstance of things, whereof the substance is so much in doubt. By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.

Source: Samson Agonistes (1671), Lines 1687-1692 & 1697-1707
Context: But he, though blind of sight,
Despised, and thought extinguished quite,
With inward eyes illuminated,
His fiery virtue roused
From under ashes into sudden flame,
[... ]
So Virtue, given for lost,
Depressed and overthrown, as seemed,
Like that self-begotten bird
In the Arabian woods embost,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay erewhile a holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now teemed,
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deemed;
And, though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird, ages of lives.

Source: Samson Agonistes (1671), Lines 1687-1692 & 1697-1707
Context: But he, though blind of sight,
Despised, and thought extinguished quite,
With inward eyes illuminated,
His fiery virtue roused
From under ashes into sudden flame,
[... ]
So Virtue, given for lost,
Depressed and overthrown, as seemed,
Like that self-begotten bird
In the Arabian woods embost,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay erewhile a holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now teemed,
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deemed;
And, though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird, ages of lives.

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Areopagitica

Source: Areopagitica

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Comus

Source: Paradise Lost

On Shakespeare (1630)
Source: The Complete Poetry

Source: Paradise Regained by John Milton

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

On Shakespeare (1630)
Source: The Complete Poetry

Source: Paradise Lost

On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three (1631)

Arcades (1630-1634), line 68
Source: The Complete Poetry

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

At a Solemn Music
Source: The Complete Poetry

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Attributed to Auguste Rodin in: Leonard William Doob (1990). Hesitation: Impulsivity and Reflection. p. 124
Source: On His Blindness (1652)

Source: Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Apology for Smectymnuus (1642), section VIII
Source: An apology for Smectymnuus with the reason of church-government by John Milton ...
Context: So little care they of beasts to make them men, that by their sorcerous doctrine of formalities, they take the way to transform them out of Christian men into judaizing beasts. Had they but taught the land, or suffered it to be taught, as Christ would it should have been in all plenteous dispensation of the word, then the poor mechanic might have so accustomed his ear to good teaching, as to have discerned between faithful teachers and false. But now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness; just as the Pharisees their true fathers were wont, who could not endure that the people should be thought competent judges of Christ’s doctrine, although we know they judged far better than those great rabbis: yet “this people,” said they, “that know not the law is accursed.”