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".
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
Grief
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 362)
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But O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.
Misery
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Samson Agonistes (l. 101)
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Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd.
Trials
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Regained (bk. II, l. 228)
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Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
Clouds
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 22)
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There does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.
Clouds
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 223)
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So when the sun in bed,
Curtain'd with cloudy red,
Pillows his chin upon an orient wave.
Clouds
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
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The low'ring element
Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape.
Clouds
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 490)
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The planets in their station list'ning stood.
Sky
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. VII, l. 563)
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Swings the scaly horror of his folded tail.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Hymn on Christ's Nativity (l. 172)
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The infernal serpent; he it was whose guile,
Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. I, l. 34)
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His form had yet not lost
All his original brightness, not appear'd
Less than arch-angel ruined, and th' excess
Of glory obscured.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. I, l. 591)
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From morn
To moon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. I, l. 742)
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Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 5)
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Black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 670)
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Incens'd with indignation Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiucus huge
In th' artic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 707)
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Abashed the Devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her own shape how lovely; saw
And pined his loss.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. IV, l. 846)
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Satan; so call him now, his former name
Is heard no more in heaven.
Devil
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. V, l. 658)
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Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
Th' express resemblance of the gods, is chang'd
Into some bruitish form of wolf or bear,
Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;
And they, so perfect in their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement.
Intemperance
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Comus (l. 64)
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. . . And when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Intemperance
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. I, l. 500)
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And grace that won who saw to wish her stay.
Grace
Quotes, by John Milton , Source: Paradise Lost (bk. VIII, l. 43)
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