John Milton

“Me miserable! Which way shall I flyInfinite 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.”

“What am I pondering, you ask? So help me God, immortality.”

“What though the field be lost? All is not Lost; the unconquerable will,And study of revenge, immortal hate,And the courage never to submit or yeild.”

“How can I live without thee, how forgoeThy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd,To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn? Should God create another Eve, and IAnother Rib afford, yet loss of theeWould never from my heart; no no, I feelThe Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy StateMine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.”

“And looks commercing with the skies,Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.”

“I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.”

“For so I created them free and free they must remain.”

“Sabrina fairListen where thou art sittingUnder the glassie, cool, translucent wave,In twisted braids of Lillies knittingThe loose train of thy amber-dropping hair,Listen for dear honour's sake,Goddess of the silver lake,Listen and save.”

“Or if they list to tryConjecture, he his fabric of the HeavensHath left to their disputes, perhaps to moveHis laughter at their quaint opinions wide."John Milton, Paradise Lost viii 75-78”

“Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?”

“Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.”

“So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good.”

“Horror and doubt distractHis troubled thoughts and from the bottom stirThe Hell within him, for within him HellHe brings and round about him, nor from HellOne step no more than from himself can flyBy change of place.”

“They also serve who only stand and wait.”

“And that must end us, that must be our cure:To be no more. Sad cure! For who would lose,Though full of pain, this intellectual being,Those thoughts that wander through eternity,To perish, rather, swallowed up and lostIn the wide womb of uncreated nightDevoid of sense and motion?”

“From morn to noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, a summer's day; and with the setting sun dropped from the zenith like a falling star.”

“Part of my soul I seek thee, and claim thee my other half”

“Silence was pleased.”

“Father, I do acknowledge and confessThat I this honor, I this pomp have broughtTo Dagon, and advanc’d his praises highamong the Heathen round; to God have broughtDishonor, obloquy, and op’d the mouthsOf Idolists, and Atheists[…]The anguish of my Soul, that suffers notMine eye to harbor sleep, or thoughts to rest.This only hope relieves me, that the strifeWith mee hath end.”

“Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of meeAll he could have; I made him just and right,Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.Such I created all th’ Ethereal PowersAnd Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail’d;Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.Not free, what proof could they have giv’n sincereOf true allegiance, constant Faith or Love,Where only what they needs must do, appear’d,Not what they would? what praise could they receive?What pleasure I from such obedience paid,When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice)Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil’d,Made passive both, had served necessity,Not mee. They therefore as to right belong’d,So were created, nor can justly accuseThir maker, or thir making, or thir Fate;As if Predestination over-rul’dThir will, dispos’d by absolute DecreeOr high foreknowledge; they themselves decreedThir own revolt, not I; if I foreknewForeknowledge had no influence on their fault,Which had no less prov’d certain unforeknown.So without least impulse or shadow of Fate,Or aught by me immutable foreseen,They trespass, Authors to themselves in allBoth what they judge and what they choose; for soI form’d them free, and free they must remain,Till they enthrall themselves: I else must changeThir nature, and revoke the high DecreeUnchangeable, Eternal, which ordain’dThir freedom: they themselves ordain’d thir fall.”

“They who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness.”

“Immortal amarant, a flower which onceIn paradise, fast by the tree of life,Began to bloom; but soon for man's offenceTo heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,And where the river of bliss through midst of heavenRolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:With these that never fade the spirits electBind their resplendent locks.”

“Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit/Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste/Brought death into the world, and all our woe,/With loss of Eden, till one greater Man/Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,/Sing heavenly muse”

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”

“Innocence, Once Lost, Can Never Be Regained. Darkness, Once Gazed Upon, Can Never Be Lost.”

“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”

“How can I live without thee, how forego Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, To live again in these wild woods forlorn?Should God create another Eve, and I Another rib afford, yet loss of thee Would never from my heart; no, no, I feel The link of nature draw me: flesh of flesh, Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy stateMine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.However, I with thee have fixed my lot, Certain to undergo like doom; if death Consort with thee, death is to me as life; So forcible within my heart I feel The bond of nature draw me to my own, My own in thee, for what thou art is mine; Our state cannot be severed, we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”

“Only supreme in misery!”

“Still paying, still to owe.Eternal woe! ”

“What hath night to do with sleep?”

“Yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible.”

“From his lips/Not words alone pleased her.”

“And on their naked limbs the flowry roof/Show'r'd Rose, which the Morn repair'd.”

“Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary…. They are not skillful considerers of human things who imagine to remove sin by removing the matter of sin. For … it is a huge heap increasing under the very act of diminishing…. Good and evil we know in the field of this world grow up together almost inseparably…. It was from out of the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into this world. And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil, that is, of knowing good by evil.”

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”

“Frei ist, wer der Vernunft gehorcht.”

“nto this wilde Abyss the warie fiendStood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frithHe had to cross.”

“Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow, through Eden took their solitary way.”

“Yet he who reigns within himself, and rulesPassions, desires, and fears, is more a king.”

“Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong naming from the ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.”

“And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.”

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

“Abash'd the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is,.....”

“Thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee, whom follow?”

“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.”

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

“Not to know at large of things remoteFrom use, obscure and subtle, but to knowThat which before us lies in daily life,Is the prime wisdom.”

“But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with thee Came not all hell broke loose?”

“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. ”

“What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,The labor of an age in pilèd stones,Or that his hallowed relics should be hidUnder a star-y-pointing pyramid?Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?”