John Milton

1608–1674

Nationality: English

Historical Period: The Early Modern Period

John Milton (1608-1674) ranks among the greatest poets of the English language. He is best known for the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), but he also wrote prose works on history, religion, and contemporary politics. Although his academic talents marked him for a career in the Anglican church, Milton turned away from the Church of England at an early age and was a consistent supporter of the Puritan cause. He spent most of his life in academia or as a civil servant working for the Puritan Commonwealth.

Read the Liberty Classics Liberty, Not Licensing: John Milton’s Areopagitica from Econlib

For additional information about John Milton see the following:

• Timeline on the Life and Work of John Milton
• the Goodrich Seminar Room entry on John Milton
• Topic on The English Revolution

Milton featured as the December 2022 OLL Birthday. Read it here

Quotes from John Milton:

• John Milton on the return of oppressive monarchy
• John Milton on the tyranny of government licensed printing
• John Milton on Eve’s discovery of the benefits of the division of labor
• John Milton on the ease with which tyrants find their academic defenders
• John Milton argues that a Monarchy wants the people to be prosperous only so it can better fleece them
• John Milton warns Parliament’s general Fairfax that justice must break free from violence if “endless war” is to be avoided
• John Milton on Satan’s Reign in Hell
• John Milton’s Advice to Kings
• 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
• John Milton opposed censorship for many reasons but one thought sticks in the mind, that “he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself”
• 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
• 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”
• 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

Titles from John Milton:

• Author: Areopagitica (1644) (Jebb ed.)
• Author: The Poetical Works of John Milton
• Author: The Prose Works of John Milton, 2 vols.
• Author: The Prose Works of John Milton, vol. 1
• Author: The Prose Works of John Milton, vol. 2
• Author: Puritanism and Liberty, being the Army Debates (1647-9)
• Author: The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth
• Author: The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates