John Milton Quotes on Life (12 Quotes)

So dear I love him, that with him all deaths I could endure, that without him live no life.

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest
Live well; how long, or short, permit to Heaven:
And now prepare thee for another sight.

Not to know at large of things remote From us, obscure and subtle, but to know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom.

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.

Yet not so strictly hath our Lord imposed
Labour, as to debar us when we need
Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,
Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse
Of looks and smiles; for smiles from reason flow,
To brute denied, and are of love the food;
Love, not the lowest end of human life.

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

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.

And on the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant.

To know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime Wisdom what is more, is fume, Or emptiness, or fond impertinence

(That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears And slits the thin-spun life.

Confirmed then I resolve,
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life.

It was but breath
Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life
And sin?