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Milton Quotes

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Milton Quotes

“All that can best be expressed in words should be expressed in verse, but verse is a slow thing to create; nay, it is not really created: it is a secretion of the mind, it is a pearl that gathers round some irritant and slowly expresses the very essence of beauty and of desire that has lain long, potential and unexpressed, in the mind of the man who secretes it. God knows that this Unknown Country has been hit off in verse a hundred times... Milton does it so well in the Fourth Book of Paradise Lost that I defy any man of a sane understanding to read the whole of that book before going to bed and not to wake up next morning as though he had been on a journey.”

WritingDesirePoetryBeautyWordsMiltonVerseParadise Lost
Book:On Anything
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“I saw a lot of men die there. Most men. Do you know what killed them?”…”Despair,” said Finney. “They believed themselves to be prisoners. I lived with those men, ate the same maggot-infested food, slept in the same beds, did the same back-breaking work. But they died and I lived. Do you know why?” “You were free.” “I was free. Milton was right…the mind is its own place. I was never a prisoner. Not then, not now.”

DeathDespairBeing FreeMiltonPrisonersMind Is FreeMind Is Its Own PlaceWhat Kills Us
Book:A Rule Against Murder
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“The portraits, of more historical than artistic interest, had gone; and tapestry, full of the blue and bronze of peacocks, fell over the doors, and shut out all history and activity untouched with beauty and peace; and now when I looked at my Crevelli and pondered on the rose in the hand of the Virgin, wherein the form was so delicate and precise that it seemed more like a thought than a flower, or at the grey dawn and rapturous faces of my Francesca, I knew all a Christian's ecstasy without his slavery to rule and custom; when I pondered over the antique bronze gods and goddesses, which I had mortgaged my house to buy, I had all a pagan's delight in various beauty and without his terror at sleepless destiny and his labour with many sacrifices; and I had only to go to my bookshelf, where every book was bound in leather, stamped with intricate ornament, and of a carefully chosen colour: Shakespeare in the orange of the glory of the world, Dante in the dull red of his anger, Milton in the blue grey of his formal calm; and I could experience what I would of human passions without their bitterness and without satiety. I had gathered about me all gods because I believed in none, and experienced every pleasure because I gave myself to none, but held myself apart, individual, indissoluble, a mirror of polished steel: I looked in the triumph of this imagination at the birds of Hera, glowing in the firelight as though they were wrought of jewels; and to my mind, for which symbolism was a necessity, they seemed the doorkeepers of my world, shutting out all that was not of as affluent a beauty as their own; and for a moment I thought as I had thought in so many other moments, that it was possible to rob life of every bitterness except the bitterness of death; and then a thought which had followed this thought, time after time, filled me with a passionate sorrow.”

GodDeathChristianityBooksGodsPaganismPaganShakespeareMiltonDante
Book:Rosa Alchemica
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“Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches And thou O Milton art a state about to be created Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death And Hell & the Grave: States that are not, but ah! Seem to be. Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore What is Eternal & what Changeable & what Annihilable: The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the knife But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever. Amen Hallelujah”

HellEternityBlissMilton
Book:Milton: A Poem
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“The seasonal urge is strong in poets. Milton wrote chiefly in winter. Keats looked for spring to wake him up (as it did in the miraculous months of April and May, 1819). Burns chose autumn. Longfellow liked the month of September. Shelley flourished in the hot months. Some poets, like Wordsworth, have gone outdoors to work. Others, like Auden, keep to the curtained room. Schiller needed the smell of rotten apples about him to make a poem. Tennyson and Walter de la Mare had to smoke. Auden drinks lots of tea, Spender coffee; Hart Crane drank alcohol. Pope, Byron, and William Morris were creative late at night. And so it goes.”

WritingMayPoetryNightFallSpringSeasonsWinterAlcoholCoffeeTeaApplesWritersAutumnPoetsSeptemberPopeInsomniaAprilMiltonSeasonByronAppleNocturnalMorrisShelleyWordsworthAudenTennysonBurnsKeatsSchillerLongfellowHart CraneDe La MareSpender
Book:When Found, Make a Verse of
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“I love everything that flows,’ said the great blind Milton of our times. I was thinking of him this morning when I awoke with a great bloody shout of joy: I was thinking of his rivers and trees and all that world of night which he is exploring. Yes, I said to myself, I too love everything that flows: rivers, sewers, lava, semen, blood, bile, words, sentences. I love the amniotic fluid when it spills out of the bag. I love the kidney with it’s painful gall-stones, it’s gravel and what-not; I love the urine that pours out scalding and the clap that runs endlessly; I love the words of hysterics and the sentences that flow on like dysentery and mirror all the sick images of the soul...”

LanguageSentencesMiltonTropic Of CancerHenry MillerJohn MiltonFlowsI Love Everything That FlowsEverything That Flows
Book:Tropic of Cancer
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“I love everything that flows,’ said the great blind Milton of our times. I was thinking of him this morning when I awoke with a great bloody shout of joy: I was thinking of his rivers and trees and all that world of night which he is exploring. Yes, I said to myself, I too love everything that flows: rivers, sewers, lava, semen, blood, bile, words, sentences. I love the amniotic fluid when it spills out of the bag. I love the kidney with it’s painful gall-stones, its gravel and what-not; I love the urine that pours out scalding and the clap that runs endlessly; I love the words of hysterics and the sentences that flow on like dysentery and mirror all the sick images of the soul...”

LanguageFlowWordsSentencesMiltonTropic Of CancerJohn MiltonI Love Everything That Flows
Book:Tropic of Cancer
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“MILTON! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! Raise us up, return to us again, And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power!”

EnglandLondonHeroismRomanticismArtistryStagnationMiltonJohn MiltonSocietal Decay
Book:London, 1802
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“Scattò tutta la testa verso di lui e disse: «Come comincerai la tua prossima lettera? Fulvia dannazione?» Lui aveva scosso la testa, frusciando i capelli contro la corteccia del ciliegio. Fulvia si affannò. «Vuoi dire che non ci sarà una prossima lettera?» «Semplicemente che non la comincerò Fulvia dannazione. Non temere, per le lettere. Mi rendo conto. Non possiamo più farne ameno. Io di scrivertele e tu di riceverle».”

MiltonLettereCiliegiBeppe FenoglioFulviaQuestione Privata
Book:Una questione privata
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“Era successo proprio all’altezza dell’ultimo ciliegio. Lei aveva attraversato il vialetto ed era entrata nel prato oltre i ciliegi. Si era sdraiata, sebbene vestisse di bianco e l’erba non fosse più tiepida. Si era raccolta nelle mani a conca la nuca e le trecce e fissava il sole. Ma come lui accennò ad entrare nel prato gridò di no. «Resta dove sei. Appoggiati al tronco del ciliegio. Così». Poi, guardando il sole, disse: «Sei brutto». Milton assentì con gli occhi e lei riprese: «Hai occhi stupendi, la bocca bella, una bellissima mano, ma complessivamente sei brutto». Girò impercettibilmente la testa verso lui e disse: «Ma non sei poi così brutto. Come fanno a dire che sei brutto?”

MiltonBellezzaCiliegiBeppe FenoglioFulviaQuestione Privata
Book:Una questione privata
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“The greatest artists, saints, philosophers, and, until quite recent times, scientists... have all assumed that the New Testament promise of eternal life is valid.... I'd rather be wrong with Dante and Shakespeare and Milton, with Augustine of Hippo and Francis of Assisi, with Dr. Johnson, Blake, and Dostoevsky than right with Voltaire, Rousseau, the Huxleys, Herbert Spencer, H. G. Wells, and Bernard Shaw.”

WellsLife IsArtistPromiseEternalScientistSaintPhilosopherDrsTestamentJohnsonEternal LifeNew TestamentBlakeMiltonAugustineHippoHuxleyBernard ShawDr Johnson
Author:Malcolm Muggeridge
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“GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says it was invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinion seems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels.”

IfsSeemsMightScienceLeftNationsOpinionSupportHumourDevilEvidenceAngelInventionChineseAgencyCivilizedEmployedDisputesConvincingSettlementScarcityTroublesomeMiltonGunpowderCivilized NationsConvincing Evidence
Book:The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
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“The slave will be free. Democracy in America will yet be a glorious reality; and when the top-stone of that temple of freedom which our fathers left unfinished shall be brought forth with shoutings and cries of grace unto it, when our now drooping Liberty lifts up her head and prospers, happy will he be who can say, with John Milton, "Among those who have something more than wished her welfare, I, too, have my charter and freehold of rejoicing to me and my heirs."”

RealityAmericaFatherLeftLibertyDemocracyGraceCryStonesSlaveLiftsWelfareGloriousTemplesRejoiceOur FatherShoutingHeirsUnfinishedCharterMiltonDemocracy In America
Book:Old portraits and modern sketches
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“It is saying less than the truth to affirm that an excellent book (and the remark holds almost equally good of a Raphael as of a Milton) is like a well-chosen and well-tended fruit tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. With the due and natural intervals, we may recur to it year after year, and it will supply the same nourishment and the same gratification, if only we ourselves return to it with the same healthful appetite.”

IfsYearsWellsMayBookNaturalTreeReturnSeasonsFruitDuesChosenExcellentAppetiteRemarksGratificationNourishmentIntervalsMiltonRaphaelFruit TreesSaying Less
Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions
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“I've been able to dine with presidents, with leaders of corporations, traveled for 14 years with (financier and philanthropist) Michael Milken, who has taught me so much about life. Hanging around with them, it's nothing I could have believed in grade school. I could be with all of them? Milton Berle, Don Rickles, Dean Martin ... this former third-string pitcher from the Norristown High baseball team and the son of an Italian immigrant? I really am in awe when I think that has happened to me. What a life.”

ThinkingYearsAbleSchoolPresidentLeaderHappenedTeamTaughtSonBaseballThirdsFormerCorporationsAweGradesImmigrantsStringsItalianTraveledPitcherDeanPhilanthropistMiltonHanging AroundDineGrades In SchoolFinanciersBaseball Team
Author:Tommy Lasorda
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“I do not know whether it is the view of the Court that a judge must be thick-skinned or just thick-headed, but nothing in my experience or observation confirms the idea that he is insensitive to publicity. Who does not prefer good to ill report of his work? And if fame a good public name is, as Milton said, the "last infirmity of noble mind", it is frequently the first infirmity of a mediocre one.”

IfsKnowsMindFirstsDoeSaidIdeasLastsNamesViewsJudgingFameCourtIllNobleObservationReportsThickMediocrePublicityInfirmityInsensitiveMilton
Author:Robert H. Jackson
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“To estimate the value of Newton's discoveries, or the delight communicated by Shakespeare and Milton, by the price at which their works have sold, would be but a poor measure of the degree in which they have elevated and enchanted their country; nor would it be less grovelling and incongruous to estimate the benefit which the country has derived from the Revolution of 1688, by the pay of the soldiers, and all other payments concerned in effecting it.”

CountryWould BeValuesPoorPayRevolutionDegreesBenefitsDiscoveryConcernedSoldierDelightPaymentNewtonEnchantedMilton
Book:Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application
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“Milton Erickson was a master at using experiential techniques to elicit strengths that were previously dormant. Mills and Crowley have masterfully captured essential elements of Erickson's work and applied it to therapy with children. Easy to read, meticulously referenced, and filled with inspiring case studies, Therapeutic Metaphors for Children and the Child Within has now been updated with important new findings, and it's essential reading for clinicians who work with children as well as for those who want to improve their use of therapeutic metaphor.”

WantWellsChildrenImportantUseReadingEasyCasesStudyMastersEssentialsElementsFindingsFilledMetaphorTechniqueTherapyCapturedMillsTherapeuticDormantMiltonCase StudiesClinicians
Author:Jeffrey K. Zeig
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“No language can fitly express the meanness, the baseness, the brutality, with which the world has ever treated its victims of one age and boasts of the next. Dante is worshipped at that grave to which he was hurried by persecution. Milton, in his own day, was "Mr. Milton, the blind adder, that spit his venom on the king's person"; and soon after, "the mighty orb of song." These absurd transitions from hatred to apotheosis, this recognition just at the moment when it becomes a mockery, saddens all intellectual history.”

WorldPersonsMomentsAgeSongNextLanguageKingsIntellectualHatredVictimBlindGravesTreatedAbsurdRecognitionTransitionPersecutionBoastBrutalitySpitMockeryMeannessMiltonVenomBasenessOrbsApotheosisAdders
Book:Literature and life, lects
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“All the poets are indebted more or less to those who have gone before them; even Homer's originality has been questioned, and Virgil owes almost as much to Theocritus, in his Pastorals, as to Homer, in his Heroics; and if our own countryman, Milton, has soared above both Homer and Virgil, it is because he has stolen some feathers from their wings.”

IfsHas BeensGonePoetWingsOriginalityFeathersStolenCountrymenPlagiarismMiltonIndebted
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“Milton has carefully marked in his Satan the intense selfishness, the alcohol of egotism, which would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

HeavenHellAlcoholIntenseSelfishnessSatanReignEgotismMilton
Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions
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“The flat tax I got on my first meeting with Margaret Thatcher, who I admired very much and who was a great admirer of Milton Friedman. I met her first when I had been prime minister I think for some months and so on, and when I told her what I am planning to do, she looked at me with these big eyes and said: "You are one brave young man." And then a little bit introduced me on the realities of the Western world on which I was not very well informed. But I didn't stop.”

ThinkingMenWorldFirstsWellsLittlesSaidBigsRealityEyeYoungBitsMonthsMetsTaxesLittle BitBraveMeetingsWesternPlanningMinistersYoung ManFlatsPrimePrime MinisterWestern WorldAdmirerMiltonBig EyesFlat Tax
Author:Mart Laar
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“Milton Friedman had the grace and good sense to recognize that he wanted to talk to the general public. He wasn't going to just lecture to the people who happened to appear in his classroom in Chicago or on some lecture circuit. He went out to talk to the general public, believing that you had to convince a democratic nation to change its ways, and he succeeded to a considerable extent.”

PeopleWayBelieveWantedNationsGraceHappenedDemocraticConvinceChicagoClassroomLecturesGood SenseCircuitsGeneral PublicMilton
Author:Allan H. Meltzer
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“If we claim heritage in Bacon, Shakespeare and Milton, we also acknowledge that it was for liberties guaranteed Englishmen by sacred charters our fathers triumphantly fought. While wisely rejecting throne and caste and privilege and an Established Church in their new-born state, they adopted the substance of English liberty and the body of English law.”

IfsStatesBodyLawFatherBornChurchLibertyClaimsSacredPrivilegeSubstanceAcknowledgeHeritageThronesAdoptedOur FatherEnglishmenRejectingCharterCastesMiltonEnglish Law
Book:Oration and memorial addresses
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