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John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, 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 (1667), written in blank verse.

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, Greek, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644)—written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship—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 (often on account of his republicanism). 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 he (a Tory and recipient of royal patronage) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican".

Because of his republicanism, Milton has been the subject of centuries of British partisanship.


“One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams.”
John Milton
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“Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear The weight of mightiest Monarchies his look Drew audience and attention still as Night Or Summers Noon-tide air while thus he spake.”
John Milton
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“What reinforcement we may gain from hope,If not what resolution from despair.”
John Milton
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“Be strong, live happy and love, but first of allHim whom to love is to obey, and keepHis great command!”
John Milton
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“And of the sixth day yet remainedThere wanted yet the master work, the endOf all yet done: a creature who not prone And brute as other creatures but enduedWith sanctity of reason might erect His stature and, upright with front serene,Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thenceMagnanimous to correspond with Heaven, But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyesDirected in devotion to adore And worship God supreme who made him chiefOf all His works.”
John Milton
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“but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself”
John Milton
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“So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair that ever since in love's embraces met -- Adam, the goodliest man of men since born his sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve.”
John Milton
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“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
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“Then wilt thou not be loathTo leave this Paradise, but shalt possessA Paradise within thee, happier far.”
John Milton
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“Who overcomesBy force, hath overcome but half his foe.”
John Milton
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“And, when nightDarkens the streets, then wander forth the sonsOf Belial, flown with insolence and wine.”
John Milton
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“To be weak is miserable,Doing or suffering.”
John Milton
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“O shame to men! Devil with devil damnedFirm concord holds, men only disagreeOf creatures rational, though under hopeOf heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace,Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strifeAmong themselves, and levy cruel wars,Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:As if (which might induce us to accord)Man had not hellish foes enough besides,That day and night for his destruction wait.”
John Milton
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“How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfet raigns.”
John Milton
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“In loving thou dost well, in passion not,Wherein true love consists not: Love refinesThe thoughts, and heart enlarges; hath his seatIn reason, and is judicious”
John Milton
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“While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,Between us two let there be peace, both joining,As joined in injuries, and enmityAgainst a foe by doom express assigned us,That cruel serpent.”
John Milton
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“Heaven is for thee too highTo know what passes there; be lowly wise.Think only what concerns thee and thy being;Dream not of other worlds, what creatures thereLive, in what state, condition, or degree,Contented that thus far hath been revealed.”
John Milton
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“Knowledge forbidden?Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their LordEnvy them that? Can it be a sin to know?Can it be death?”
John Milton
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“Here at lastWe shall be free;the Almighty hath not builtHere for his envy, will not drive us hence:Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition though in Hell:Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
John Milton
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“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. ”
John Milton
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“Many a man lives a burden to the Earth, but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”
John Milton
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“Not so on Man; him through their malice fall'n,Father of Mercy and Grace, thou didst not doomSo strictly, but much more to pity incline:No sooner did thy dear and only SonPerceive thee purpos'd not to doom frail ManSo strictly, but much more to pity inclin'd,He to appease thy wrath, and end the strifeOf mercy and Justice in thy face discern'd,Regardless of the Bliss wherein hee satSecond to thee, offer'd himself to dieFor man's offence. O unexampl'd love,Love nowhere to be found less than Divine!Hail Son of God, Saviour of Men, thy NameShall be the copious matter of my SongHenceforth, and never shall my Harp thy praiseForget, nor from thy Father's praise disjoin.”
John Milton
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“A veces la soledad es la mejor compañía.”
John Milton
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“He who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained the utmost prospect of reformation that the mortal glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific vision, that man by this very opinion declares that he is yet far short of truth.”
John Milton
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“No man [...] can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself.”
John Milton
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“Luck is the residue of design.”
John Milton
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“Farewell happy fields,Where joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors, hail.”
John Milton
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“So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life.”
John Milton
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“I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture downThe dark descent, and up to reascend...”
John Milton
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“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”
John Milton
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“Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep...”
John Milton
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“He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the center, 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.”
John Milton
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“how wearisomEternity so spent in worship paidTo whom we hate. Let us not then pursueBy force impossible, by leave obtain'd Unacceptable, though in Heav'n, our stateOf splendid vassalage, but rather seekOur own good from our selves, and from our ownLive to our selves, though in this vast recess,Free, and to none accountable, preferring Hard liberty before the easie yokeOf servile Pomp”
John Milton
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“The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveler".”
John Milton
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“Only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith; Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love, By name to come called charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise; but shalt possess A paradise within thee, happier far.”
John Milton
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“They, looking back, all the eastern side beheldOf Paradise, so late their happy seat,Waved over by that flaming brand, the gateWith dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms:Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and Providence their guide;They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way.”
John Milton
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“When I consider how my light is spentEre half my days in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide,"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"I fondly ask. But Patience, to preventThat murmur, soon replies: "God doth not needEither man's work or his own gifts: who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs kingly; thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o'er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.”
John Milton
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“Of four infernal rivers that disgorge/ Into the burning Lake their baleful streams;/Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate,/Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;/Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud/ Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon/ Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage./ Far off from these a slow and silent stream,/ Lethe the River of Oblivion rolls/ Her wat'ry Labyrinth whereof who drinks,/ Forthwith his former state and being forgets,/ Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.”
John Milton
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“Is it true, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer the most?That the strongest wander furthest and most hopelessly are lost?That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain?That the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?”
John Milton
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“Where the bright seraphim in burning rowTheir loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.”
John Milton
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“Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. ”
John Milton
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“Our cure, to be no more; sad cure! ”
John Milton
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“How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!”
John Milton
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“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.”
John Milton
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“We boast our light; but if we look not wisely on the run itself, it smites us into darkness. Who can discern those planets that are oft combust, and those starts of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the sun, until the opposite motion of their orbs bring them to such a place in the firmament where they may be seen evening or morning? The light which we have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge.”
John Milton
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“All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”
John Milton
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“Solitude sometimes is best society.”
John Milton
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“They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell.”
John Milton
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“O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beamsThat bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.”
John Milton
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“Pikiran itu sendiri adalah tempat; di dalamnya ia dapat mengubah neraka menjadi surga atau surga menjadi neraka”
John Milton
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