Top 500 John Milton Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Poetry Quotes, Mindset Quotes, Deep Quotes, Heaven Quotes

2. “Every cloud has a silver lining.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Short Positive Quotes, Opportunity Quotes, Common Sense Quotes, Optimism Quotes, Positive Thinking Quotes

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

— John Milton

Featured in: Quotes About Light

4. “Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes

5. “Vanity is definitely my favorite sin.”

— John Milton

6. “Where no hope is left, is left no fear.”

— John Milton

7. “Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, in every gesture dignity and love.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Poetry Quotes, Grace Quotes, Romantic Quotes, Deep Love Quotes

8. “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

— John Milton

9. “Ink is the blood of the printing-press.”

— John Milton

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

— John Milton

11. “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?”

— John Milton

12. “Solitude is sometimes best society.”

— John Milton

13. “Here we may reign secure; and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell: Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Choices Quotes, Ambition Quotes, Crazy Quotes

14. “You can make hell out of heaven and heaven out of hell. It’s all in the mind.”

— John Milton

15. “He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.”

— John Milton

16. “All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Revenge Quotes

17. “Luck is the residue of design.”

— John Milton

18. “Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Virtue Quotes

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

— John Milton

20. “Freely we serve, Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall.”

— John Milton

21. “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

— John Milton

22. “Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold.”

— John Milton

23. “Calm of mind, all passion spent.”

— John Milton

24. “Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss.”

— John Milton

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

— John Milton

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

— John Milton

27. “What is dark within me, illumine.”

— John Milton

28. “Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk.”

— John Milton

29. “Death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity.”

— John Milton

30. “But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and excessive, overturns All patience.”

— John Milton

31. “Temper justice with mercy.”

— John Milton

32. “Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls his watery labyrinth, which whoso drinks forgets both joy and grief.”

— John Milton

33. “All hell broke loose.”

— John Milton

34. “Farewell happy fields, Where joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors, hail.”

— John Milton

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

— John Milton

36. “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.”

— John Milton

37. “O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse Without all hope of day!”

— John Milton

38. “What hath night to do with sleep?”

— John Milton

39. “All hope is lost of my reception into grace; what worse? For where no hope is left, is left no fear.”

— John Milton

40. “To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.”

— John Milton

41. “To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.”

— John Milton

42. “Was I deceiv’d, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?”

— John Milton

43. “He who destroys a good book kills reason itself.”

— John Milton

Featured in: Reading Quotes

44. “Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”

— John Milton

45. “Into this wild abyss, The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave.”

— John Milton

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

— John Milton

47. “God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed, And post o’er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.”

— John Milton

48. “What if Earth be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein – each other like, more than on Earth is thought?”

— John Milton

49. “Mutual love, the crown of all our bliss.”

— John Milton

50. “To live a life half dead, a living death.”

— John Milton