John Milton (1608–74) was an English poet of radical politics who lived during one of the most volatile times in the history of England. He is best remembered as the author of Lycidas (1637,) Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained.
Born on Bread Street in London, to an affluent family, Milton studied at Cambridge. He became fluent in Latin, Greek, Italian, and Hebrew, and he committed the entire Bible to memory. In 1638, he left on a 15-month tour to visit Florence, Rome, and Naples, and met such important figures as astronomer Galileo Galilei and the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius. His expedition to Europe was interrupted by news of political turmoil in England and the likelihood of civil war.
Upon his return to England, Milton became a polemicist and wrote prose for the Republican cause. He used the then-new printing press to produce and distribute pamphlets. His political influential expanded, and Milton became chief assistant to Oliver Cromwell, lord protector of the English Commonwealth.
In his later years, Milton was beset by failing eyesight. By 1654, Milton was blind. Many of his poems were dictated to assistants, one of whom was the poet Andrew Marvell.
The English Commonwealth collapsed upon Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658. After the reinstatement of the monarchy in 1660, Milton was imprisoned. Marvell argued that Milton was old and blind and therefore posed no threat to Charles II. Consequently, Milton narrowly escaped execution and got liberated.
All of Milton’s three major works, Paradise Lost (1667; revised, 1674,) Paradise Regained (1671,) and Samson Agonistes (1671) were completed after he had gone blind. Scholars rate Paradise Lost the defining English epic, and interpret it as a political allegory—the fall of man in Eden echoes the lost paradise of Milton’s much-cherished Republic.
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To know that which lies before us in daily life is the prime wisdom.
—John Milton
A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
—John Milton
No institution which does not continually test its ideals, techniques and measure of accomplishment can claim real vitality.
—John Milton
He who reigns within himself, and rules passions,
desires, and fears, is more than a king.
—John Milton
Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.
—John Milton
The power of Kings and Magistrates is nothing else, but what is only derivative, transferrd and committed to them in trust from the People, to the Common good of them all, in whom the power yet remaines fundamentally, and cannot be takn from them, without a violation of thir natural birthright.
—John Milton
For man he seemsIn all his lineaments, though in his faceThe glimpses of his Fathers glory shine.
—John Milton
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
—John Milton
To know that which before us lies in daily life, is the prime wisdom; what is more is fume, or emptiness, or fond impertinence, and renders us, in things that most concern, unpracticed and unprepared.
—John Milton
Topics: Wisdom, Knowledge
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