Quotes from Paradise Lost

John Milton ·  453 pages

Rating: (109.9K votes)


“What hath night to do with sleep?”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost



“All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep...”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,
Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend...”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost



“For so I created them free and free they must remain.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“What is dark within me, illumine.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Into this wild Abyss/ The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave--/ Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,/ But all these in their pregnant causes mixed/ Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,/ Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain/ His dark materials to create more worlds,--/ Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend/ Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,/ Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith/ He had to cross. ”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. ”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost



“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“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, quote from Paradise Lost


“Our state cannot be severed, we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Knowledge forbidden?
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord
Envy them that? Can it be a sin to know?
Can it be death?”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“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, quote from Paradise Lost



“Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Ah, why should all mankind
For one man's fault, be condemned,
If guiltless?”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“From his lips/Not words alone pleased her.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms:
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide;
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“What though the field be lost?
All is not Lost; the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And the courage never to submit or yeild.”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost



“And that must end us, that must be our cure:
To be no more. Sad cure! For who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish, rather, swallowed up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night
Devoid of sense and motion?”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Be strong, live happy and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
His great command!”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


“Our cure, to be no more; sad cure! ”
― John Milton, quote from Paradise Lost


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About the author

John Milton
Born place: in Bread Street, Cheapside, London, England
Born date December 9, 1608
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