John Milton - Paradise Lost (1667)

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The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.

John Milton
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

John Milton
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise.

John Milton
For now I see
Peace to corrupt no less than war to waste.

John Milton
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field.

John Milton
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
Unless th'Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds.

John Milton
Our state cannot be sever'd; we are one,
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.

John Milton
But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with thee
Came not all hell broke loose?

John Milton
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life.

John Milton
Far off from these a slow and silent stream, Lethe the river of oblivion rolls.

John Milton
That space the Evil One abstracted stood From his own evil, and for the time remained Stupidly good, of enmity disarmed, Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge.

John Milton
Others apart sat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.

John Milton
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good.

John Milton
Adam, the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

John Milton
Long is the way
And hard, that out of hell leads up to light.

John Milton
On a sudden open fly With impetuous recoil and jarring sound Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder.

John Milton
Equally inured by moderation either state to bear, prosperous or adverse.

John Milton
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;
But prayer against his absolute decree
No more avails than breath against the wind
Blown stifling back on him that breathes it forth:
Therefore to his great bidding I submit.

John Milton
The hasty multitude Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise And some the architect: his hand was known In heaven by many a tower'd structure high, Where scepter'd angels held their residence, And sat as princes.

John Milton
But that from us aught should ascend to Heav'n So prevalent as to concern the mind Of God, high-bless'd, or to incline His will, Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer.

John Milton
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift than time or motion.

John Milton
Nor from hell One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place.

John Milton
The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, For each seem'd either,--black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand.

John Milton
Thou sun, said I, fair light, And thou enlightened earth so fresh and gay, Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains, And ye that live and move, fair creatures, tell - Tell if ye saw, how came I thus, how here?

John Milton
With diadem and sceptre high advanced,
The lower still I fall; only supreme
In misery; such joy ambition finds.

John Milton
A spot like which perhaps Astronomer in the Sun's lucent Orbe Through his glaz'd Optic Tube yet never saw.

John Milton
Suffering for truth's sake Is fortitude to highest victory, And to the faithful death the gate of life.

John Milton
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
So absolute she seems And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.

John Milton