John Milton Quotes

I must not quarrel with the will Of highest dispensation, which herein, Haply had ends above my reach to know.

O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still; Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.

Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgement to do aught, which else free will Would not admit.

But O yet more miserable! Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.

If we think we regulate printing, thereby to rectify manners, we must regulate all regulations and pastimes, all that is delightful to man.

They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy.

For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrowers, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.

A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond / Frightened the reign of Chaos and old Night.

The bird of Jove, stoop'd from his aery tour, Two birds of gayest plume before him drove.

For what is glory but the blaze of fame?

Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.

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

Dim eclipse, disastrous twilight.

And the more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me.

With thee conversing I forget all time.

Say, heavenly pow'rs, where shall we find such love? Which of ye will be mortal to redeem Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save.

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

Hide me from day's garish eye, While the bee with honied thigh, That at her flowery work doth sing, And the waters murmuring With such consort as they keep, Entice the dewy-feathered sleep.

Laws can discover sin, but not remove it

I was all ear, And took in strains that might create a soul Under the ribs of death.

Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

Hail, wedded love, mysterious law; true source of human happiness.

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

Nor think thou with wind Of æry threats to awe whom yet with deeds Thou canst not.

Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?

Sweet bird that shunn'st the nose of folly, Most musical, most melancholy! Thee, chauntress, oft, the woods among, I woo, to hear thy even-song.

Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.

Let her (Truth) and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?

Accuse not nature: she hath done her part; Do thou but thine.

Death ready stands to interpose his dart.

But what more oft in nations grown corrupt, And by their vices brought to servitude, Than to love bondage more than liberty, Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.

Smiles from reason flow, To brute deny'd, and are of love the food.

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

The timely dew of sleep.

Reason also is choice.

Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.

In vain doth valour bleed, While Avarice and Rapine share the land.

Therefore God's universal law Gave to the man despotic power Over his female in due awe, Not from that right to part an hour, Smile she or lour.

Subdue By force, who reason for their law refuse, Right reason for their law.

Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by those shadowy expiations weak.

Into this wild abyss, The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave.

So many laws argues so many sins.

Yet hold it more humane, more heav'nly, first, By winning words to conquer willing hearts, And make persuasion do the work of fear.

In argument with men a woman ever Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.

The planets in their station list'ning stood.

Or if Virtue feeble were, Heav'n itself would stoop to her.

Nor aught availed him now to have built in heaven high towers; nor did he scrape by all his engines, but was headlong sent with his industrious crew to build in hell.

Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed.

Well observe The rule of Not too much, by temperance taught In what thou eat'st and drink'st.

Consider first, that great or bright infers not excellence.