Quotes from John Milton

Was I to have never parted from thy side? As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. Paradise Lost, Book IX, l. 1154

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 ways of God to men.

What if the Sun Be centre to the World, and other stars..... The planet earth, so steadfast though she seem, In sensibly three different motions move?

This and the following Psalm were don by the Author at fifteen yeers old.

Say they who counsel war; 'we are decreed, Reserved, and destined to eternal woe; Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, What can we suffer worse?' Is this then worst, Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms? What when we fled amain, pursued and struck With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought The Deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse.

One fatal tree there stands of knowledge call'd Forbidden them to taste. Knowledge forbidden? Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord Envy them that? Can it be sin to know? Can it be death? And do they only stand By ignorance? Is that their happy state, The proof of their obedience and their faith?

He who kills a person kills a reasonable creature, but he who kills a good book destroys reason itself.

Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos'd /Labor, as to debar when we need /Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,/ food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse/Of looks and smiles, for smiles from Reason flow,/To brutes denied, and are of Love the food, Love not the lowest end of human life. For not to irksome toil, but to delight/ He made us, and delight to reason join'd.

For who knows not that Truth is strong..; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licencings to make her victorious.

Of thee/ Pains only in child-bearing were foretold; soon recompensed with joy, fruit of thy womb.

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, though not but by the spirit understood.

With ambitious aim against the throne and monarchy of God rais'd impious war in Heav'n and battel proud.