John Milton: Living

John Milton was English epic poet. Explore interesting quotes on living.
John Milton: 380   quotes 18   likes

“While the cock with lively din
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack, or the barn door,
Stoutly struts his dames before,
Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn.”

John Milton

Source: L'Allegro (1631), Line 49

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”

John Milton book Areopagitica

Source: Areopagitica

Life , Books , Soul , Dead

“Be strong, live happy and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
His great command!”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Love , Strong , Happiness

“Heaven is for thee too high
To know what passes there; be lowly wise.
Think only what concerns thee and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition, or degree,
Contented that thus far hath been revealed.”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

World , Dreams , Thinking

“Madam, methinks I see him living yet;
So well your words his noble virtues praise,
That all both judge you to relate them true,
And to possess them, honour'd Margaret.”

John Milton

To the Lady Margaret Ley http://www.bartleby.com/106/85.html

“Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreprovèd pleasures free.”

John Milton

Source: L'Allegro (1631), Line 38

Pleasure

“Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.”

John Milton

The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce Preface: "TO THE PARLAMENT OF ENGLAND" https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/ddd/parliament/text.shtml (1643)

Forgetting

“Inflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.”

John Milton

Tractate of Education (1644)

Men , God , Age , Hope

“Such strains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite set free
His half-regained Eurydice.
These delights, if thou canst give,
Mirth, with thee, I mean to live.”

John Milton

Source: L'Allegro (1631), Line 148

“Alas! what boots it with incessant care
To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade,
And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?
Were it not better done as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorrèd shears,
And slits the thin-spun life.”

John Milton Lycidas

Source: Lycidas (1637), Line 64; comparable to: "Erant quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur" (Translated: "Some might consider him as too fond of fame, for the desire of glory clings even to the best of men longer than any other passion"), Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 6; said of Helvidius Priscus.

Life , Hope , Home , Thinking