John Milton (December 9, 1608-November 8, 1674) was an English poet and political writer. His blank-verse epic, Paradise Lost, 1667, considered a masterpiece of English literature, detailed Lucifer’s revolt against God and the fall in the garden of Adam and Eve. Milton aggressively defended the Puritan cause, writing: Pro Populo Anglicano, 1651; The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649; The Tetrachordon, 1645; and The Reason of Church Government, 1642, which declared that governments should exert no control over the local churches.
In his middle forties, John Milton went blind, followed by his wife dying in childbirth. He continued creating by dictating his works to his daughters, including Paradise Lost, 1667, and Paradise Regained, 1671. He expressed:
1608JM001
In 1629, in the composition, On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, John Milton wrote:
<This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing,
That He our deadly forfeit should release,
And with His Father work us a perpetual peace.> 1608JM002 In Il Penseroso, 1631, John Milton wrote:
<And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light,
There let the pealing organ blow, To the full-voiced choir below,
In service high, and anthems clear
As may, with sweetness, through mine ear Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.> 1608JM003
In 1634, John Milton wrote in Comus:
1608JM004
In Lycidas, 1637, Milton composed:
<Last came, and last did go, The Pilot of the Galilean lake;
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).> 1608JM005
In his work, Animadversions upon the Reply of Smectymnuus, 1642, John Milton wrote:
1608JM006
In Tractate of Education, 1644, John Milton wrote:
1608JM007
In Areopagitica, 1644, considered the best of his prose works, John Milton wrote:
1608JM008
In On the Late Massacre in Piedmont, 1655, John Milton wrote:
<Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Ev’n them who kept thy truth so pure of old
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones Forget not.> 1608JM009
In True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, 1673, John Milton declared:
1608JM010
In Paradise Lost, written in 1667, John Milton coined the lines:
1608JM012
So vivid were his depictions in Paradise Lost, that it has become a classic which has endured the ages:
<Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden….
What in men 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….
The infernal serpent; he it was, whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind….
Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms….
Thus Belial with words clothed in reason’s garb Counseled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, Not peace.> 1608JM013
—
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1608JM001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 46.
1608JM002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1629, in On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, st. I, l. I. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 277. 1608JM003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1631, in Il Penseroso, l. 159. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), pp. 278-279.
1608JM004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1634, in Comus, l. 587. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotation (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 279.
1608JM005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1637, in Lycidas, l. 108. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 280.
1608JM006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1642, in Animadversions upon the Reply of Smectymnuus. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 320. 1608JM007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1644, in Tractate of Education. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 281.
1608JM008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1644, in Areopagitica. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 281.
1608JM009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1655, in On the Late Massacre in Piedmont. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 282.
1608JM010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 320.
1608JM011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1667, in Paradise Lost, bk. IV, l. 208. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 285. Lewis C. Henry, Best Quotations For All Occasions (Greenwich, CONN: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1961), p. 104.
1608JM012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1667 in Paradise Lost, bk. IV, l. 918. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 286. Lewis C. Henry, Best Quotations For All Occasions (Greenwich, CONN: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1961), p. 105.
1608JM013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Milton, 1667, in Paradise Lost, bk. I, l. 1, 22, 34, 44, bk. II, l. 226. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), pp. 282-289.
This post originally appeared at https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute/john-milton-december-9-1608-november-8-1674