Quotes from John Milton

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that liv'st unseen Within thy airy shell By slow Meander's margent green, And in the violet-imbroider'd vale Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair That likest thy Narcissus are?

Though all 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.

And on their naked limbs the flowry roof/Show'r'd Rose, which the Morn repair'd.

And what is faith, love, virtue unassay'd alone, without exterior help sustained?

To mee, who with eternal Famine pine, Alike is Hell, or Paradise, or Heaven, There best, where most with ravin I might meet; Which here, though plenteous, all too little seems To stuff this Maw, this vast unhide-bound Corpse.

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, Thought not but by the spirit understood.

And chiefly thou, O spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st. Thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sattest brooding on the vast abyss, And madst it pregnant.

Thou at the sight Pleased, out of Heaven shalt look down and smile, While by thee raised I ruin all my foes, Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave.

No man who knows aught can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself.

Those who have put out the people's eyes, reproach them of their blindness.

In yonder nether world where shall I seek His bright appearances or footstep trace? For though I fled him angry, yet recalled To life prolonged and promised race I now Gladly behold though but His utmost skirts Of glory, and far off His steps adore.

Not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and subtle, but to know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom.