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John Milton Quotes (1608-1674)
Poet
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About John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is most famous for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful John Milton quotes.
“The gadding vine.”
“My rising is thy fall”
“Forget thyself to marble.”
“Then to the spicy nut-brown ale.”
“As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye.”
“In mirth that after no repenting draws.”
“The gay motes that people the sunbeams.”
“Where more is meant than meets the ear.”
“Without the meed of some melodious tear.”
“Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son”
“Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day.”
“Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.”
“Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy,”
“Peor and Baälim
Forsake their temples dim.”
Forsake their temples dim.”
“Such as may make thee search the coffers round.”
“That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.”
“Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.”
“Under the shady roof
Of branching elm star-proof.”
Of branching elm star-proof.”
“He knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.”
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.”
John Milton Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of John Milton quotes by topic.
John Milton on Stars 10 quotes
View all 10 quotes on Stars →John Milton on Death 9 quotes
View all 9 quotes on Death →John Milton on Devil 9 quotes
View all 9 quotes on Devil →John Milton on Character 8 quotes
“Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved.”
John Milton on Music 8 quotes
View all 8 quotes on Music →John Milton on Beauty 7 quotes
View all 7 quotes on Beauty →John Milton on Heaven 6 quotes
View all 6 quotes on Heaven →John Milton on Angels 6 quotes
View all 6 quotes on Angels →What John Milton Said About Others
Discover personal opinions John Milton shared regarding contemporaries.
John Milton on Mother Nature 4 quotes
“And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons.”
John Milton on Wives 4 quotes
“For what thou art is mine: Our state cannot be sever'd; we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.”
John Milton on William Shakespeare 3 quotes
“And so sepulchr'd, in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.”
John Milton on Jesus 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Jesus →John Milton on Moses 2 quotes
“The next remove must be to the study of politics; to know the beginning, end, and reasons of political societies; … After this they are to dive into the ground of law and legal justice; delivered first, and with best warrant by Moses.”
John Milton on Edmund Spenser
“Our sage and serious poet Spencer, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas.”
John Milton on Thomas Fairfax
“Fairfax, whose name in arms through Europe rings Filling each mouths with envy or with praise, And all her jealous monarchs with amaze.”
John Milton on Maiden
John Milton on Edmund Grindal
“And surely they were moderate Divines indeed, neither hot nor cold; and Grindall the best of them, afterwards Arch-Bishop of Canterbury lost favour in the Court, and I think was discharg'd the goverment of his See for favouring the Ministers.”
John Milton on John Wycliffe
“Why else was this Nation chos'n before any other, that out of her as out of Sion should be proclam'd and sounded forth the first tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all Europ. And had it not bin the obstinat perversnes of our Prelats against the divine and admirable spirit of Wicklef, to suppresse him as a schismatic and innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Husse and Jerom no nor the name of Luther, or of Calvin had bin ever known: the glory of reforming all our neighbours had bin compleatly ours.”
John Milton on Oliver Cromwell
“Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud, Not of war only, but detractions rude, Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, To peace and truth thy glorious way has ploughed And on the neck of crowned fortune proud Has reared God’s trophies, and his work pursued, While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued, And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud, And Worcester’s laureate wreath. Yet much remains To conquer still; peace hath her victories No less renowned than war: new foes arise, Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains: Help us to save free conscience from the paw Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw.”
Quotes About John Milton
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about John Milton from others.
Matthew Arnold on John Milton 2 quotes
“In the sure and flawless perfection of his rhythm and diction he is as admirable as Virgil or Dante, and in this respect he is unique amongst us. No one else in English literature and art possesses the like distinction. Thomson, Cowper, Wordsworth, all of them good poets who have studied Milton, followed Milton, adopted his form, fail in their diction and rhythm if we try them by that high standard of excellence maintained by Milton constantly. From style really high and pure Milton never departs; their departures from it are frequent.”
William Blake on John Milton
“The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he Wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.”
John Bright on John Milton 2 quotes
“Now, more than thirty years ago, when I was very young indeed, in my beginning to think about public affairs, in reading the pure writings of John Milton, I found a passage which fixed itself in my mind. This passage time has never been able to take from my memory. He says, "Yet true eloquence I find to be none but the serious and hearty love of truth." And I have endeavoured, so far as I have had the opportunity of speaking in public, to abide by that wise and weighty saying.”
Edmund Burke on John Milton 2 quotes
“No person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, in their strongest light by the force of a judicious obscurity, than Milton. His description of Death in the second book is admirably studied; it is astonishing with what a gloomy pomp, with what a significant and expressive uncertainty of strokes and colouring he has finished the portrait of the king of terrors... In this description all is dark, uncertain, confused, terrible, and sublime to the last degree.”
Lord Byron on John Milton
“A little heavy, but no less divine.”
Gordon Campbell on John Milton 2 quotes
“Milton, on our account, is flawed, self-contradictory, self-serving, arrogant, passionate, ruthless, ambitious, and cunning. He is also among the most accomplished writers of the Caroline period, the most eloquent polemicist of the mid-century, and the author of the finest and most influential narrative poem in English. Janus-faced, he looks back to the world of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Jonson, and forward to Dryden and to Pope. He is driven by engaging enthusiasms—for the culture of Italy, for music, for in some way matching the life and work of Virgil. He knows his own worth, his singularity, his specialness. He is the most scholarly of poets, a master of classical culture and learning, a humanist in the great tradition of Hugo Grotius or John Selden, and he had a thorough appreciation of modern writers of continental Europe, and particularly of Italy. He studied law, mathematics, history, philology, and theology. He was also a thoughtful and innovative teacher.”
Lord Carlisle on John Milton
“Breakfasted with Macaulay. He thinks that, though the last eight books of Paradise Lost contain incomparable beauties, Milton's fame would have stood higher if only the first four had been preserved. He would then have been placed above Homer.”
Thomas Corns on John Milton
“Milton's dream academy may strike us as a version of hell: repressive, prescriptive, elitist, masculinist, militaristic, dustily pedantic, class-ridden, affectionless. It is hard to imagine it would be endured by anyone as instinctively oppositional as its designer. What remains of interest about the tract [Of Education], though, relates to the critique it offers of Milton's own educational experience and to the disclosure it offers of his particular cultural assumption and concerns.”
John Dryden on John Milton 5 quotes
“Milton's Paradise Lost is admirable; but am I therefore bound to maintain, that there are no flats amongst his elevations, when it is evident he creeps along sometimes for above a hundred lines together? Cannot I admire the height of his invention, and the strength of his expression, without defending his antiquated words, and the perpetual harshness of their sound? It is as much commendation as a man can bear, to own him excellent; all beyond it is idolatry.”
Neil Gaiman on John Milton
Francis Hirst on John Milton 2 quotes
“But though in his noble and self-imposed task, the Defence of Liberty, Milton drew inspiration from the poets, orators and philosophers of Greece, nevertheless he stands proudly eminent as the great original genius who first proclaimed to our modern world the truth that freedom to express our thoughts in speech and writing is of all liberties most to be prized.”
Samuel Johnson on John Milton 2 quotes
“An acrimonious and surly republican.”
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to John Milton
“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
About John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is most famous for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse.