“Our cure, to be no more; sad cure! ”

“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?”

“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.”

“Our torments also may in length of timeBecome our Elements.”

“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”

“Oh goodness infinite, goodness immense!That all this good of evil shall produce,And evil turn to good; more wonderfulThan that which by creation first brought forthLight out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand,Whether I should repent me now of sinBy me done, and occasioned; or rejoiceMuch more, that much more good thereof shall spring;To God more glory, more good-will to menFrom God, and over wrath grace shall abound.”

“The happy placeImparts to thee no happiness, no joy --Rather inflames thy torment, representingLost bliss, to thee no more communicable;So never more in Hell than when in Heaven.”