Paradise Lost Quotes

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..

What hath night to do with sleep?

Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.

Solitude sometimes is best society.

Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.

Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.

All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.

Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep...

I sung of Chaos and Eternal Night,Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture downThe dark descent, and up to reascend...

Me miserable! Which way shall I flyInfinite wrath and infinite despair?Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;And in the lowest deep a lower deep,Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.

For so I created them free and free they must remain.

What is dark within me, illumine.

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

A mind not to be changed by place or time.The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clayTo mould me man? Did I solicit theeFrom darkness to promote me?

O sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beamsThat bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.

Our state cannot be severed, we are one,One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.

Knowledge forbidden?Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their LordEnvy them that? Can it be a sin to know?Can it be death?

Who overcomesBy force, hath overcome but half his foe.

Should God create another Eve, and IAnother Rib afford, yet loss of theeWould never from my heart; no no, I feelThe Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy StateMine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.

From his lips/Not words alone pleased her.

Ah, why should all mankindFor one man's fault, be condemned,If guiltless?

Be strong, live happy and love, but first of allHim whom to love is to obey, and keepHis great command!

And that must end us, that must be our cure:To be no more. Sad cure! For who would lose,Though full of pain, this intellectual being,Those thoughts that wander through eternity,To perish, rather, swallowed up and lostIn the wide womb of uncreated nightDevoid of sense and motion?

Our cure, to be no more; sad cure!

What though the field be lost? All is not Lost; the unconquerable will,And study of revenge, immortal hate,And the courage never to submit or yeild.

Farewell happy fields,Where joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors, hail.

Our torments also may in length of timeBecome our Elements.

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, till one greater Man/Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,/Sing heavenly muse

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee, whom follow?

Immortal amarant, a flower which onceIn paradise, fast by the tree of life,Began to bloom; but soon for man's offenceTo heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,And where the river of bliss through midst of heavenRolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:With these that never fade the spirits electBind their resplendent locks.

Neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible except to God alone.

To be weak is miserable,Doing or suffering.

So shall the world go on,To good malignant, to bad men benign,Under her own weight groaning.

Heaven is for thee too highTo know what passes there; be lowly wise.Think only what concerns thee and thy being;Dream not of other worlds, what creatures thereLive, in what state, condition, or degree,Contented that thus far hath been revealed.

Then wilt thou not be loathTo leave this Paradise, but shalt possessA Paradise within thee, happier far.

And, when nightDarkens the streets, then wander forth the sonsOf Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair that ever since in love's embraces met -- Adam, the goodliest man of men since born his sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve.

Horror and doubt distractHis troubled thoughts and from the bottom stirThe Hell within him, for within him HellHe brings and round about him, nor from HellOne step no more than from himself can flyBy change of place.

How can I live without thee, how forgoeThy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd,To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn? Should God create another Eve, and IAnother Rib afford, yet loss of theeWould never from my heart; no no, I feelThe Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy StateMine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.

But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with thee Came not all hell broke loose?

For Man to tell how human life began is hard; for who himself beginning knew?

So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate,Giving to death, and dying to redeem,So dearly to redeem what hellish hateSo easily destroy'd, and still destroys,In those who, when they may, accept not grace.

Even the demons are encouraged when their chief is "not lost in loss itself.

That day I oft remember, when from sleepI first awaked, and found myself reposed,Under a shade, on flowers, much wondering whereAnd what I was, whence thither brought, and how.

Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more.

See with what heat these Dogs of Hell advanceTo waste and havoc yonder World.

But first whom shall we sendIn search of this new world, whom shall we findSufficient? Who shall tempt, with wand'ring feetThe dark unbottomed infinite abyssAnd through the palpable obscure find outHis uncouth way, or spread his aery flightUpborne with indefatigable wingsOver the vast abrupt, ere he arriveThe happy isle?

A grateful mind by owing owes not, but still pays, at once indebted and discharged; what burden then?