John Milton

“Truth and understanding are not such wares as to be monopolized and traded in by tickets and statutes and standards.”

“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 nea...”

“Be strong, live happy and love, but first of all Him whom to love is to obey, and keep His great command!”

“And of the sixth day yet remained There wanted yet the master work, the end Of all yet done: a creature who not prone And brute as other creatures but endued With sanctity of reason might er...”

“No man [...] can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself.”

“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, t...”

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

“Whom hast thou then, or what, to accuse, but heaven's free love dealt equally t'all?”

“Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st Live well, how long or short permit to Heaven.”

“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 he...”

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

“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...”

“Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.”

“Where the bright seraphim in burning row Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.”

“Immortal amarant, a flower which once In paradise, fast by the tree of life, Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, And flowers aloft...”

“Henceforth an individual solace dear; Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half: with that thy gentle hand Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see How beauty is excelld...”

“Here at last We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: B...”

“Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear”

“Consult.../what reinforcement we may gain from hope,/If not, what resolution from despair.”

“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 le...”