John Milton quotes:

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  • Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.

  • Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.

  • He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.

  • When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.

  • Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship.

  • The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.

  • Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self.

  • Sabrina fair, Listen where thou art sitting Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, In twisted braids of lilies knitting The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.

  • And, when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

  • He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.

  • The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

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

  • O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death.

  • Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence.

  • For what can war, but endless war, still breed?

  • A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit.

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

  • Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose, like an exhalation.

  • How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets Where no crude surfeit reigns

  • Confounded, though immortal. But his doom, reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought both of lost happiness and lasting pain torments him.

  • A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names On sands and shores and desert wildernesses

  • Govern well thy appetite, lest Sin surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

  • Lords are lordliest in their wine.

  • Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names.

  • His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command. Ibid.

  • Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.

  • Infernal world, and thou profoundest HellReceive thy new Possessor: One who bringsA mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.The mind is its own place, and in it selfCan make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n."

  • ... then there was war in heaven. But it was not angels. It was that small golden zeppelin, like a long oval world, high up. It seemed as if the cosmic order were gone, as if there had come a new order, a new heavens above us: and as if the world in anger were trying to revoke it.

  • And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, consult how we may henceforth most offend.

  • Where the bright seraphim in burning rowTheir loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.

  • Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine.

  • Let none admire that riches grow in hell; that soil may best deserve the precious bane.

  • The earth, though in comparison of heaven so small, nor glistering, may of solid good contain more plenty than the sun, that barren shines.

  • Fairy elves, Whose midnight revels by a forest side Or fountain some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon Sits arbitress.

  • Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, counseled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, not peace.

  • Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, And with forced fingers rude Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

  • God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.

  • Every cloud has a silver lining.

  • The power of Kings and Magistrates is nothing else, but what is only derivative, transferrd and committed to them in trust from the People, to the Common good of them all, in whom the power yet remaines fundamentally, and cannot be takn from them, without a violation of thir natural birthright.

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

  • O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!

  • These eyes, tho' clear To outward view of blemish or of spot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot, Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, not bate a jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward.

  • Neither prosperity nor empire nor heaven can be worth winning at the price of a virulent temper, bloody hands, an anguished spirit, and a vain hatred of the rest of the world.

  • No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.

  • Don't hold grudges; it's pointless. Jealousy too is a non-cathartic, negative emotion. .

  • How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabb

  • Tis chastity, my brother, chastity; She that has that is clad in complete steel, And, like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen, May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths, Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, Will dare to soil her virgin purity.

  • It is Chastity, my brother. She that has that is clad in complete steel.

  • So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity, That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lacky her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt.

  • So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dream and solemn vision Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape.

  • To adore the conqueror, who now beholds Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood.

  • The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.

  • Love Virtue, she alone is free, She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime; Or, if Virtue feeble were, Heav'n itself would stoop to her.

  • It was from out the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world.

  • God sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous person, more that the restraint of ten vicious.

  • Believe and be confirmed.

  • With eyes Of conjugal attraction unreprov'd. Imparadised in one another's arms. With thee conversing I forget all time. And feel that I am happier than I know.

  • Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.

  • True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves.

  • Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful Jollity, Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides.

  • Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought Mosaic; underfoot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone Of costliest emblem: other creature here Beast, bird, insect, or worm durst enter none; Such was their awe of man.

  • Some say no evil thing that walks by night, In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine, Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.

  • Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound Over some wide-watered shore, Swinging low with sullen roar.

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

  • On the tawny sands and shelves trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.

  • This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.

  • Seas wept from our deep sorrows.

  • Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, sober steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, flowing with majestic train.

  • Luck is the residue of design.

  • Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.

  • The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, Safest and seemliest by her husband stays, Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.

  • A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv'd only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all; but torture without end.

  • It was that fatal and perfidious bark, Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark.

  • In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.

  • The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.

  • 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.

  • Sable-vested Night, eldest of things.

  • Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul And lap it in Elysium.

  • Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.

  • Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe, and pale gessamine, The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, The glowing violet, The musk-rose, and the well attir'd woodbine, With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears: Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.

  • Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy amidst the noise Of endless wars, and by confusion stand; For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, Strive here for mast'ry.

  • Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies.

  • Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right.

  • The timely dew of sleep Now falling with soft slumb'rous weight inclines Our eyelids.

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

  • And what is faith, love, virtue unassayed Alone, without exterior help sustained?

  • Faithful found among the faithless.

  • So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found; Among the faithless, faithful only he.

  • Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.

  • Come knit hands, and beat the ground in a light fantastic round

  • 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.

  • Fear of change perplexes monarchs.

  • Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold.

  • If this fail, The pillar'd firmament is rottenness, And earth's base built on stubble.

  • Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

  • Th' imperial ensign, which full high advanc'd Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind.

  • I sat me down to watch upon a bank With ivy canopied and interwove With flaunting honeysuckle.

  • The pious and just honoring of ourselves may be thought the fountainhead from whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.

  • O execrable son! so to aspire Above his brethren, to himself assuming Authority usurped, from God not given. He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, Dominion absolute; that right we hold By his donation; but man over men He made not lord; such title to himself Reserving, human left from human free.

  • Chaos umpire sits And by decision more embroils the fray by which he reigns: next him high arbiter Chance governs all.

  • I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

  • Meanwhile the Adversary of God and man, Satan with thoughts inflamed of highest design, Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell Explores his solitary flight.

  • Swinish gluttony never looks to heaven amidst its gorgeous feast; but with besotted, base ingratitude, cravens and blasphemes his feeder.

  • The spirit of man, which God inspired, cannot together perish with this corporeal clod.

  • He who destroys a good book kills reason itself.

  • These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!

  • My heart contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.

  • Thy actions to thy words accord; thy words To thy large heart give utterance due; thy heart; Contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.

  • The olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.

  • That space the Evil One abstracted stood From his own evil, and for the time remained Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed, Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge .

  • Beauty is God's handwriting-a wayside sacrament.

  • Anger and just rebuke, and judgment given, That brought into this world a world of woe, Sin and her shadow Death, and Misery, Death's harbinger.

  • Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, comes dancing from the east.

  • We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. Abraham Lincoln, White House speech 11 April 1865. Or arm th' obdured breast With stubborn patience as with triple steel.

  • Where more is meant than meets the ear.

  • Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss

  • From restless thoughts, that, like a deadly swarm Of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone, But rush upon me thronging.

  • O welcome pure-eyed Faith, white handed Hope, Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings.

  • Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.

  • For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone.

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