John Milton's poetry
famous and familiar quotations

John Milton was born in London in 1608 and spent several years in private study after completing a University education at Cambridge. Several impressive Latin works he had produced prior to his undertaking a European tour (1638-9) allowed him to be well received by scholarly circles on the continent.

During the English Civil War and Interregnum Eras Milton's productivity as a poet was impaired by his involvement with radical factions participating in the issues of those times.

Milton went blind in 1652.

The restoration of Monarchy in Britain made it advisable for him, as a noted radical and apologist of the revolution, to go into hiding. Nevertheless it was after this time that he became the author of his celebrated twelve-volume "Paradise Lost" (completed 1663).

John Milton died in 1674.

Here are some famous and familiar quotations from John Milton poetry:-

What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.

.......courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry Halls
And Courts of Princes, where it first was nam'd,
And yet is most pretended.

Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks her adversary.

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.

Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring.

Good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows.

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on a purpose to a life beyond life.

How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose;
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns.

More famous and familiar quotations from John Milton poetry are to be found on our "Other" poetry insights page.

Introductory quotations

Dryden

Robert Frost

Keats

Start of John Milton poetry
famous and familiar quotations

John Milton's poetry famous and familiar quotations

John Milton's poetry
famous and familiar quotations