254 Famous Quotes by John Milton
12/9/1608 - 11/8/1674
Also Known As:
Johnny Milton
Milton, John
Professions:
Information:
About John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.
Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica, is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press.
William Hayley's 1796 biography called him the "greatest English author," and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language," though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death. Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as "a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind," though Johnson described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican".
And the gilded car of day,
His glowing axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantic stream.
Sunset
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 95)
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He seemed
For dignity compos'd and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow.
Deceit
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 110)
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The hasty multitude
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise,
And some the architect: his hand was known
In heaven by many a tower'd structure high,
Where scepter'd angels held their residence,
And sat as princes.
Architecture
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. I, l. 730)
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So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found,
Among the faithless faithful only he.
Fidelity
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. V, l. 896)
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A grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd.
Gratitude
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. IV, l. 55)
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Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who
could not hear the music.
Dancing
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: L'Allegro (l. 96)
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Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul
And lap it in Elysium.
Singing
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 256)
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Or did the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes as, warbled to the string,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek.
Singing
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Il Penseroso (l. 105)
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Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth
The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.
Luck
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: At a Vacation Exercise in the College
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How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh, and crabbed, as full fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns.
Philosophy
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Mask of Comus (l. 476)
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This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King,
Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring,
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That He our deadly forfeit should release,
And with His Father work us a perpetual peace.
Christmas
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Hymn--On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
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Ring out ye crystal spheres!
Once bless our human ears,
If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time,
And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow;
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.
Christmas
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (st. 13), a hymn
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He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' 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.
Light
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 381)
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But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale,
And love the high embowed roof,
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight;
Casting a dim religious light.
Light
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Il Penseroso (l. 155)
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Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.
Light
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Il Penseroso (l. 79)
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