Quotes by John Milton

John Milton believes men live under a “double tyranny” within (the tyranny of custom and passions) which makes them blind to the tyranny of government without (1649)

John Milton defends the right of freedom of the press and likens government censors to an “oligarchy” and a free press to a “flowery crop of knowledge” (1644)

John Milton laments the case of a people who won their liberty “in the field” but who then foolishly “ran their necks again into the yoke” of tyranny (1660)

John Milton in Paradise Regained has Christ deplore the “false glory” which comes from military conquest and the despoiling of nations in battle (1671)

John Milton opposed censorship for many reasons but one thought sticks in the mind, that “he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself” (1644)

After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, John Milton was concerned with both how the triumphalist monarchists would treat the English people and how the disheartened English people would face their descendants (1660)

Milton warns Parliament’s general Fairfax that justice must break free from violence if “endless war” is to be avoided (1648)

Milton argues that a Monarchy wants the people to be prosperous only so it can better fleece them (1660)

Milton on the ease with which tyrants find their academic defenders (1651)

Milton on Eve’s discovery of the benefits of the division of labor in the Garden of Eden (1667)

John Milton on the tyranny of government licensed printing (1644)

John Milton’s Advice to Kings

John Milton on Satan’s Reign in Hell