John Milton B. 1608 – D. 1674

John Milton B. 1608 – D. 1674

 John Milton was an English poet an intellectual, and a Puritan who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. Wikipedia

In addition, he was a poet, pamphleteer, and historian, and is best known for writing “Paradise Lost,” which is considered as the greatest epic poem in English.

John Milton Quotes:

“Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.” – John Milton

“Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear” – John Milton

“Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king.” – John Milton

“Of man’s disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden.” – John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Amid the Garden by the Tree of Life,   Remember what I warne thee, shun to taste,   And shun the bitter consequence: for know,   The day thou eat’st thereof, my sole command   Transgrest, inevitably thou shalt dye;   From that day mortal, and this happie State   Shalt loose, expell’d from hence into a World   Of woe and sorrow. Sternly” – John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly

Infinite wrath and infinite despair?

Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;

And in the lowest deep a lower deep,

Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide,

To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”

– John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Into this wild Abyss/ The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave–/ Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,/ But all these in their pregnant causes mixed/ Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,/ Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain/ His dark materials to create more worlds,–/ Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend/ Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,/ Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith/ He had to cross. ” – John Milton, Paradise Lost

“What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,

The labor of an age in pilèd stones,

Or that his hallowed relics should be hid

Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,

What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?” – John Milton, The Complete Poetry

“Hail, Son of the Most High, heir of both Worlds,   Queller of Satan! On thy glorious work   Now enter, and begin to save Mankind.”     Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,   Sung victor, and, from heavenly feast refreshed,   Brought on his way with joy. He, unobserved,   Home to his mother’s house private returned.” – John Milton, Paradise Regained

“His weakness shall o’ercome Satanic strength,   And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;   That all the Angels and aethereal Powers—   They now, and men hereafter—may discern   From what consummate virtue I have chose   This perfet man, by merit called my Son,   To earn salvation for the sons of men.”  So spake the Eternal Father, and all Heaven   Admiring stood a space;” – John Milton, Paradise Regained

“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.” – John Milton, Milton on Education, the Tractate of Education

“The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.” – John Milton

 “Celestial light, shine inward…that I may see and tell of things invisible to mortal sight” – John Milton

Why you should read “Paradise Lost” by John Milton

Why you should re-read Paradise Lost