John Milton - Paradise Lost (1667)

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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
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
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
Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?

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

John Milton
At His birth a star, unseen before in heaven, proclaims Him come.

John Milton
So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the Tree Of Prohibition, root of all our woe.

John Milton
For the air of youth,
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry
To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume
The balm of life.

John Milton
Yet I shall temper so Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most Them fully satisfy'd, and thee appease.

John Milton
The Tree of Knowledge grew fast by, Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill.

John Milton
She what was honour knew, And with obsequious majesty approv'd My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven And happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.

John Milton
Who can in reason then or right assume monarchy over such as live by right his equals, if in power or splendor less, in freedom equal?

John Milton
Let us seek Death, or he not found, supply With our own hands his office on ourselves; Why stand we longer shivering under fears, That show no end but death, and have the power, Of many ways to die the shortest choosing, Destruction with destruction to destroy.

John Milton
Heaven
Is as the Book of God before thee set,
Wherein to read His wondrous works.

John Milton
All maladies Of ghastly Spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick Agonie, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, Epilepsies, fierce Catarrhs, Intestine Stone and Ulcer, Colic pangs, Dropsies and Asthmas, and Joint-racking Rheums.

John Milton
[Infinity is],..a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound, Without dimension; where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place, are lost.

John Milton
Satan; so call him now, his former name Is heard no more in heaven.

John Milton
If by fire Of sooty coal th' empiric alchymist Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold.

John Milton
Fate shall yield
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife.

John Milton
Hereafter, when they come to model Heav'n And calculate the Stars, how they will wield The mightier frame, how build, unbind, contrive To save appearances, how gird the Shear With Centric and Eccentric scribbled ore, Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb.

John Milton
So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found; Among the faithless, faithful only he.

John Milton
As when the potent Rod Of Amrams Son in Egypt's evil day Wav'd round the Coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind, That ore the Realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like Night, and darkened all the Land of Nile

John Milton
How often from the steep Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive each to other's note, Singing their great Creator?

John Milton
Law can discover sin, but not remove, Save by those shadowy expiations weak.

John Milton
'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.

John Milton
What can 'scape the eye
Of God, all-seeing, or deceive His heart.
Omniscient!

John Milton
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
Son of Heav'n and Earth, Attend: that thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continuest such, owe to thyself, That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.

John Milton
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
Nor turned I ween Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites Mysterious of connubial love refused: Whatever hypocrites austerely talk Of purity and place and innocence, Defaming as impure what God declares Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.

John Milton