Paradise Lost Quotes

“What hath night to do with sleep?”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth

“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“It is so simple and easy to hate and so grueling and hard to love, when the emotional “love forever”- revelation has become a crumbling “love never, ever again”- crack-up. There is no route back to a paradise lost, when the bonds of trust have, irrevocably, been blasted. ("Another empty room")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms:
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide;
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“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. 1
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 22.”
― John Milton

“Still paying, still to owe.
Eternal woe! ”
― John Milton

“Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong naming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.”
― John Milton

“They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell.”
― John Milton

“The Prologue to TERRITORY LOST

"Of cats' first disobedience, and the height
Of that forbidden tree whose doom'd ascent
Brought man into the world to help us down
And made us subject to his moods and whims,
For though we may have knock'd an apple loose
As we were carried safely to the ground,
We never said to eat th'accursed thing,
But yet with him were exiled from our place
With loss of hosts of sweet celestial mice
And toothsome baby birds of paradise,
And so were sent to stray across the earth
And suffer dogs, until some greater Cat
Restore us, and regain the blissful yard,
Sing, heavenly Mews, that on the ancient banks
Of Egypt's sacred river didst inspire
That pharaoh who first taught the sons of men
To worship members of our feline breed:
Instruct me in th'unfolding of my tale;
Make fast my grasp upon my theme's dark threads
That undistracted save by naps and snacks
I may o'ercome our native reticence
And justify the ways of cats to men.”
― Henry N. Beard, Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse

“Thus it shall befall Him, who to worth in women over-trusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook; And left to herself, if evil thence ensue She first his weak indulgence will accuse.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th’ Ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail’d;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv’n sincere
Of true allegiance, constant Faith or Love,
Where only what they needs must do, appear’d,
Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil’d,
Made passive both, had served necessity,
Not mee. They therefore as to right belong’d,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Thir maker, or thir making, or thir Fate;
As if Predestination over-rul’d
Thir will, dispos’d by absolute Decree
Or high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed
Thir own revolt, not I; if I foreknew
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less prov’d certain unforeknown.
So without least impulse or shadow of Fate,
Or aught by me immutable foreseen,
They trespass, Authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge and what they choose; for so
I form’d them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves: I else must change
Thir nature, and revoke the high Decree
Unchangeable, Eternal, which ordain’d
Thir freedom: they themselves ordain’d thir fall.”
― John Milton, Complete Poems and Major Prose

“God is the ultimate fantasy of the Superiority Principle. Milton’s Lucifer, the ultimate individual, the most romantic figure in all of literature, is the Superiority Principle made flesh. Lord Byron loved him. Cesare Borgia came close. Caesar or nothing, as he liked to say. Every individual loves the Prince of Darkness! As Milton declared, ‘To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.’ That is the philosophy of the individual, the motto of the Superman.”
― Mark Romel

“I know that the fact that I am always searching for God, always struggling to discover the fullness of Love, always yearning for the complete truth, tells me that I have already been given a taste of God, of Love and of Truth. I can only look for something that I have, to some degree, already found. How can I search for beauty and truth unless that beauty and truth are already known to me in the depth of my heart? It seems that all of us human beings have deep inner memories of the paradise that we have lost.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

“Filled with pride, he thought maybe the problem was not him, but God. Out of jealousy for the son, he decided that he and his legions should not worship or obey God.”
― Joseph Stemberga, A Paraphrase of Paradise Lost for Youngsters: The Tragedy of Lucifer

“O Father,” the Son replied, “I represent you in all things. As my face reflects your greatness, goodness, love, and warmth, so now it shall reflect the terror you inflict upon the disobedient.”
― Joseph Stemberga, A Paraphrase of Paradise Lost for Youngsters: The Tragedy of Lucifer

“Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“At God’s declaration of war, dark clouds covered all of Heaven and smoke began to roll down the sacred hill. Then the countless hosts of Heaven marched on the enemy, fully armed from head to toe with helmets, spears, and shields.”
― Joseph Stemberga, A Paraphrase of Paradise Lost for Youngsters: The Tragedy of Lucifer

“so much the fear,
Of Thunder and the Sword of Michael,
Wrought still within them:”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“And of, though wisdom wake, suspicion
sleeps at wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no
ill Where no ill seems.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sight of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes at all; but torture without end”
― John Milton

“sometimes paradise happens
too early and leaves us shuddering in its wake”
― Kaveh Akbar

“so much the fear,
Of Thunder and the Sword of Michael,
Wrought still within them:”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“It is significant," he said after a pause, "that the English regard slackness as a vice. We, on the other hand, should vastly prefer it to tension. Is there not too much tension in the world at present, and might it be better if more people were slackers?”
― James Hilton, Lost Horizon

“The rise of consciousness, synaptic pruning, hormonal shifts, and transitions in brainwave patterns, all expel the child from Eden and push it into the normal world. Adam and Eve always have to leave paradise to grow up.”
― Rob Armstrong, Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers

“The greatest kingdom of all time is the kingdom of heaven.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“Paradise lost is all the sweeter rediscovered—and damnation not nearly as sour as you might imagine.”
― Peter Fehervari, The Thirteenth Psalm

“If you will not have authority you will find yourself obeying brute force.”
― C.S. Lewis

“There is only one sin. That is weakness. When a boy I read Milton's Paradise Lost. The only good man I had arny respect only for was Satan. The saint is that soul that never weakens, faces everything and determines to die game.”
― Swami Vivekananda, Thoughts on the Gita

“My life feels like a dream that has already ended. There's nothing to fear and nothing to rejoice about. I should feel happy, but instead, I feel nothing. Lately, I experience a profound sense of emptiness. This void is unmistakable, even when I try to convince myself otherwise. It is beautiful, boundless, full yet empty. Now I've come to understand what people mean about memories—whether they are good or bad, they always leave you feeling a bit more empty afterward. After an ending, there's just a long stretch of time where it seems everything has concluded and nothing new will ever begin. Maybe there is no path back to a lost paradise.”
― Rolf van der Wind