Top 500 John Milton Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “Fairest of stars, last in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn.”

— John Milton

402. “Thrones, dominions, princedoms, virtues, powers – If these magnific titles yet remain Not merely titular.”

— John Milton

403. “So little knows Any, but God alone, but perverts best things To worst abuse, or to their meanest use.”

— John Milton

404. “No war or battle sound Was heard the world around.”

— John Milton

405. “Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!”

— John Milton

406. “And if by prayer Incessant I could hope to change the will Of Him who all things can, I would not cease To weary Him with my assiduous cries.”

— John Milton

407. “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

408. “The martyrs shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness.”

— John Milton

409. “It is Chastity, my brother. She that has that is clad in complete steel.”

— John Milton

410. “That power Which erring men call Chance.”

— John Milton

411. “The timely dew of sleep Now falling with soft slumb’rous weight inclines Our eyelids.”

— John Milton

412. “Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise.”

— John Milton

413. “All is best, though we oft doubt, what the unsearchable dispose, of highest wisdom brings about.”

— John Milton

414. “Arms on armour clashing bray’d Horrible discord, and the madding wheels Of brazen chariots rag’d: dire was the noise Of conflict.”

— John Milton

415. “And looks commercing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.”

— John Milton

416. “My mansion is, where those immortal shapes Of bright aerial spirits live insphered In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth.”

— John Milton

417. “Fame, if not double fac’d, is double mouth’d, And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.”

— John Milton

418. “Farewell Hope, and with Hope farewell Fear.”

— John Milton

419. “Horror and doubt distract His troubled thoughts and from the bottom stir The Hell within him, for within him Hell He brings and round about him, nor from Hell One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place.”

— John Milton

420. “What better can we do than prostrate fall before Him reverent, and there confess humbly our faults, and pardon beg with tears watering the ground?”

— John Milton

421. “This manner of writing wherein knowing myself inferior to myself? I have the use, as I may account it, but of my left hand.”

— John Milton

422. “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.”

— John Milton

423. “Implied Subjection, but requir’d with gentle sway, And by her yielded, by him best receiv’d,- Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.”

— John Milton

424. “It is lawful and hath been held so through all ages for any one who have the power to call to account a tyrant or wicked king, and after due conviction to depose and put him to death.”

— John Milton

425. “What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe?”

— John Milton

426. “So much I feel my genial spirits droop, My hopes all flat, nature within me seems In her functions weary of herself.”

— John Milton

427. “Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the laureate to hearse when Lycid lies.”

— John Milton

428. “This is servitude, To serve the unwise.”

— John Milton

429. “Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude, they then begin to fail.”

— John Milton

430. “Joking decides great things, Stronger and better oft than earnest can.”

— John Milton

431. “Such as the meeting soul may pierce, In notes with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out.”

— John Milton

432. “The gay motes that people the sunbeams.”

— John Milton

433. “Midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence.”

— John Milton

434. “Arm the obdured breast with stubborn patience as with triple steel.”

— John Milton

435. “Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?”

— John Milton

436. “Nor from hell One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place.”

— John Milton

437. “The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.”

— John Milton

438. “God made thee perfect, not immutable.”

— John Milton

439. “I fled, and cry’d out, Death; Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh’d From all her caves, and back resounded, Death.”

— John Milton

440. “Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound Over some wide-watered shore, Swinging low with sullen roar.”

— John Milton

441. “That practis’d falsehood under saintly shew, Deep malice to conceal, couch’d with revenge.”

— John Milton

442. “For what is glory but the blaze of fame?”

— John Milton

443. “Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.”

— John Milton

444. “Witness this new-made world, another Heav’n From Heaven Gate not farr, founded in view On the clear Hyaline, the Glassie Sea; Of amplitude almost immense, with Starr’s Numerous, and every Starr perhaps a world Of destined habitation.”

— John Milton

445. “Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right.”

— John Milton

446. “And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.”

— John Milton

447. “Sweet intercourse of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow.”

— John Milton

448. “The bird of Jove, stoop’d from his aery tour, Two birds of gayest plume before him drove.”

— John Milton

449. “And now without redemption all mankind Must have been lost, adjudged to death and hell By doom severe.”

— John Milton

450. “So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend Walked up and down alone bent on his prey.”

— John Milton