John Milton

What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and courage never to submit or yield: and what is else not to be overcome?

No light, but rather darkness visible.

And in the lowest deep a lower deep still threatening to devour me opens wide, to which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

Abashed the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is, and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw and pined his loss.

Such as the world has known, in all her pomp, her pride, and her oppression.

Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries lent for show, but to dispense their good.

Solitude sometimes is best society.

And the fair Sex, whose chief delight is to be thought of, and who, for that reason, love to live in the midst of a crowd, and to be admired by all, cannot but be displeased at a solitude, which deprives them of all these pleasures.

For God, when he gave the command to multiply, did not mean that it should be a perpetual or a forced generation, but a free and voluntary one.

Marriage is a covenant, not a sacrament.

He who would be a great man, must be a great judge.

The greatest part of men are but a rude multitude, and have no more sense of things than children.

For what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

To be more than man, is not to be man.

Evil into the mind of God or man may come and go, so unapproved, and leave no spot or blame behind.

The world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest, and providence their guide.

God doth not need either man's work or his own gifts; who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.

Yet, when I consider that I am not to satisfy the vulgar, but those who are knowing, and lovers of truth, I am encouraged to proceed.

For what is a city but men? And what is a man, if he be not a rational creature?

I am not about to write a romance, but a serious history.