Top 500 John Milton Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure; her whiteness is but an excremental whiteness.”

— John Milton

352. “Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view.”

— John Milton

353. “And feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce.”

— John Milton

354. “Morn, Wak’d by the circling hours, with rosy hand Unbarr’d the gates of light.”

— John Milton

355. “Come and trip it as ye go On the light fantastic toe.”

— John Milton

356. “The winds with wonder whist, Smoothly the waters kisst.”

— John Milton

357. “In contemplation of created things, by steps we may ascend to God.”

— John Milton

358. “He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.”

— John Milton

359. “Infinity is a dark illimitable ocean, without bound.”

— John Milton

360. “Eloquence the soul, song charms the senses.”

— John Milton

361. “So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity, That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lacky her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt.”

— John Milton

362. “The great Emathian conqueror bid spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground.”

— John Milton

363. “If this fail, The pillar’d firmament is rottenness, And earth’s base built on stubble.”

— John Milton

364. “And on the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant.”

— John Milton

365. “And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth, and many a maid, Dancing in the checkered shade. And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday.”

— John Milton

366. “But peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of Light His reign of peace upon the earth began.”

— John Milton

367. “Nations grow corrupt, love bondage more than liberty; bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.”

— John Milton

368. “Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.”

— John Milton

369. “Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live.”

— John Milton

370. “O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still; Thou with fresh hope the lover’s heart dost fill While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.”

— John Milton

371. “Let us no more contend, nor blame each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive, In offices of love, how we may lighten each other’s burden.”

— John Milton

372. “Ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize.”

— John Milton

373. “Forget thyself to marble.”

— John Milton

374. “To many a youth and many a maid, dancing in the chequer’d shade.”

— John Milton

375. “Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk.”

— John Milton

376. “Hide me from day’s garish eye, While the bee with honied thigh, That at her flowery work doth sing, And the waters murmuring With such consort as they keep, Entice the dewy-feathered sleep.”

— John Milton

377. “This is the month, and this the happy morn, wherein the Son of heaven’s eternal King, of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, our great redemption from above did bring.”

— John Milton

378. “So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair that ever since in love’s embraces met – Adam, the goodliest man of men since born his sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve.”

— John Milton

379. “Yet much remains To conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned then war, new foes arise Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains: Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw.”

— John Milton

380. “Laws can discover sin, but not remove it.”

— John Milton

381. “Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love In blissful solitude.”

— John Milton

382. “He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.”

— John Milton

383. “And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light.”

— John Milton

384. “As therefore the state of man now is, what wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear, without the knowledge of good and evil?”

— John Milton

385. “A death-like sleep, A gentle wafting to immortal life.”

— John Milton

386. “Or if Virtue feeble were, Heav’n itself would stoop to her.”

— John Milton

387. “Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.”

— John Milton

388. “O Conscience, into what abyss of fears And horrors hast thou driven me, out of which I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged.”

— John Milton

389. “On the tawny sands and shelves trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.”

— John Milton

390. “The earth, though in comparison of heaven so small, nor glistering, may of solid good contain more plenty than the sun, that barren shines.”

— John Milton

391. “A bevy of fair women.”

— John Milton

392. “Sable-vested Night, eldest of things.”

— John Milton

393. “A limbo large and broad, since call’d The Paradise of Fools to few unknown.”

— John Milton

394. “Extol not riches then, the toil of fools, The wise man’s cumbrance, if not snare, more apt To slacken virtue, and abate her edge, Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.”

— John Milton

395. “And live like Nature’s bastards, not her sons.”

— John Milton

396. “The Tempter ere th’ Accuser of man-kind, To wreck on innocent frail man his loss Of that first Battel, and his flight to Hell: Yet.”

— John Milton

397. “O madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.”

— John Milton

398. “I hate when vice can bolt her arguments, And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.”

— John Milton

399. “Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn.”

— John Milton

400. “Our torments also may in length of time Become our elements, these piercing fires As soft as now severe, our temper changed Into their temper.”

— John Milton