John Milton citations

Page 3

“[…], la paix ne corrompt pas moins que la guerre ne dévaste.”

“Celui qui a vaincu par la force, n’a vaincu qu’à moitié son ennemi.”

“Samson : […] chez les nations où la corruption est entrée, et que le vice a précipitées dans la servitude, quoi de plus commun que de préférer l’esclavage à la liberté : l’esclavage avec le bien-être, à la liberté qui exige la valeur; […]”

“[…], régner est digne d’ambition, même en enfer; mieux vaut régner en enfer que servir le ciel.”

“Thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee, whom follow?”

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

“So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good.”

“Neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible except to God alone.”

“To be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering.”

“Still paying, still to owe.
Eternal woe!”

“So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign,
Under her own weight groaning.”

“Then wilt thou not be loath
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee, happier far.”

“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.”

“Silence was pleased.”

“One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams.”

“What is strength without a double share of wisdom?”

“The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveler".”

“But oh! as to embrace me she inclined,
I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.”

“Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race:
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping Hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross.”

“I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.”

“From haunted spring and dale
Edged with poplar pale
The parting genius is with sighing sent.”

“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.”

“By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die.”

“They looking back, all th' Eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat,
Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
With dreadful Faces throng'd and fierie Armes:
Som natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon;
The World was all before them, where to choose
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
Through EDEN took thir solitarie way.”

“Have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.”

“Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy”

“Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought.”

“The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground.”

“For stories teach us, that liberty sought out of season, in a corrupt and degenerate age, brought Rome itself to a farther slavery: for liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be handled by just and virtuous men; to bad and dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own hands: neither is it completely given, but by them who have the happy skill to know what is grievance and unjust to a people, and how to remove it wisely; what good laws are wanting, and how to frame them substantially, that good men may enjoy the freedom which they merit, and the bad the curb which they need.”

“Methought I saw my late espousèd saint
Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave.”

“O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.”

“Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument.”

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