Top 500 John Milton Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void.”

— John Milton

152. “Promiscuous reading is necessary to the constituting of human nature. The attempt to keep out evil doctrine by licensing is like the exploit of that gallant man who thought to keep out the crows by shutting the park gate.”

— John Milton

153. “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 State Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.”

— John Milton

154. “O fleeting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!”

— John Milton

155. “Yet I shall temper so Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most Them fully satisfy’d, and thee appease.”

— John Milton

156. “Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north – wind’s breath, And stars to set; but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!”

— John Milton

157. “Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep...”

— John Milton

158. “O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.”

— John Milton

159. “Beauty stands In the admiration only of weak minds Led captive.”

— John Milton

160. “O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!”

— John Milton

161. “Suffering for truth’s sake Is fortitude to highest victory, And to the faithful death the gate of life.”

— John Milton

162. “For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone.”

— John Milton

163. “Servant of God, well done! well hast thou fought The better fight, who single hast maintain’d Against revolted multitudes the cause of truth.”

— John Milton

164. “A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold, And pavement stars, – as stars to thee appear Seen in the galaxy, that milky way Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest Powder’d with stars.”

— John Milton

165. “My latest found, Heaven’s last, best gift, my ever new delight!”

— John Milton

166. “Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offence returning, to regain Love once possess’d.”

— John Milton

167. “Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds.”

— John Milton

168. “Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides. Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastic toe.”

— John Milton

169. “Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers.”

— John Milton

170. “Fate shall yield To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife.”

— John Milton

171. “Evil, be thou my good.”

— John Milton

172. “There is nothing that making men rich and strong but that which they carry inside of them. True wealth is of the heart, not of the hand.”

— John Milton

173. “In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs.”

— John Milton

174. “New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large.”

— John Milton

175. “Who knows not Circe, The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape, And downward fell into a groveling swine?”

— John Milton

176. “Our state cannot be severed, we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”

— John Milton

177. “Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.”

— John Milton

178. “Rich and various gems inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep.”

— John Milton

179. “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

180. “Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgement to do aught, which else free will Would not admit.”

— John Milton

181. “Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss.”

— John Milton

182. “The olive grove of Academe, Plato’s retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.”

— John Milton

183. “Nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote.”

— John Milton

184. “Anon out of the earth a fabric huge Rose, like an exhalation.”

— John Milton

185. “The rising world of waters dark and deep.”

— John Milton

186. “Now I see Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste.”

— John Milton

187. “Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.”

— John Milton

188. “Our cure, to be no more; sad cure!”

— John Milton

189. “Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth The fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.”

— John Milton

190. “Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.”

— John Milton

191. “More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang’d To hoarse or mute, though fall’n on evil days, On evil days though fall’n, and evil tongues.”

— John Milton

192. “In argument with men a woman ever Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.”

— John Milton

193. “And I will place within them as a guide My umpire conscience, whom if they will hear Light after light well used they shall attain, And to the end persisting, safe arrive.”

— John Milton

194. “For truth is strong next to the Almighty. She needs no policies or stratagems or licensings to make her victorious. These are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.”

— John Milton

195. “Virtue hath no tongue to check vice’s pride.”

— John Milton

196. “Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, Covering the earth with odours, fruits, flocks, Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, But all to please and sate the curious taste?”

— John Milton

197. “Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self.”

— John Milton

198. “Lifted up so high I disdained subjection, and thought one step higher would set me highest.”

— John Milton

199. “In Physic, things of melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, sour against sour, salt to remove salt humors.”

— John Milton

200. “When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.”

— John Milton