"They also serve who only stand and wait."

"I neither oblige the belief of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. Nor have I stood with others computing or collating years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious about the time and circumstance of things, whereof the substance is so much in doubt. By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes."

"Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos'd /Labor, as to debar 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 brutes denied, and are of Love the food, Love not the lowest end of human life. For not to irksome toil, but to delight/ He made us, and delight to reason join'd."

"To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable."

"Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught which else free will Would not admit."

"Mortals that would follow me, Love virtue, she alone is free, She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime; Or if virtue feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her."

"Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that liv'st unseenWithin thy airy shellBy slow Meander's margent green,And in the violet-imbroider'd valeWhere the love-lorn nightingaleNightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pairThat likest thy Narcissus are?"

"For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy the only evil that walks invisible."

"How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfet raigns."

"And so sepAolchred in such pomp dost lie,That kings for such a tomb would wish to die."

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

"Wickedness is weakness."

"Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end."

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

"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?"

"Thou therefore on these Herbs, and Fruits, and Flow'rsFeed first, on each Beast next, and Fish, and Fowl, No homely morsels, and whatever thingThe Scyth of Time mows down, devour unspar'd, Till I in Man residing through the Race, His thoughts, his looks, words, actions all infect, And season him thy last and sweetest prey."

"Celestial light, shine inward...that I may see and tell of things invisible to mortal sight."

"Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness."

"Deep versed in books and shallow in himself."

"And of the sixth day yet remainedThere wanted yet the master work, the endOf all yet done: a creature who not prone And brute as other creatures but enduedWith sanctity of reason might erect His stature and, upright with front serene,Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thenceMagnanimous to correspond with Heaven, But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyesDirected in devotion to adore And worship God supreme who made him chiefOf all His works."

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

"A heaven on earth."

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

"Come let us haste, the stars grow high, But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky."

"They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell."

"The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection."

"Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, where most may wonder at the workmanship."

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

"Now came still evening on, and twilight grayHad in her sober livery all things clad;Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird,They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;She all night long her amorous descant sung;Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmamentWith living sapphires; Hesperus, that ledThe starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,Rising in clouded majesty, at lengthApparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw."

"Th' unconquerable will,/ And study of revenge, immortal hate,/ And courage never to submit or yield/ And what is else not to be overcome?"

"Henceforth an individual solace dear; Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half: with that thy gentle hand Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see How beauty is excelld by manly grace."

"Infernal world, and thou profoundest HellReceive thy new Possessor: One who bringsA mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.The mind is its own place, and in it selfCan make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n."

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

"For what can war, but endless war, still breed?"

"Flowers of all hue and without thorn the rose."

"Nothing profits more than self-esteem, grounded on what is just and right."

"The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

"Virtue could see to do what Virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon where in the flat sea sunk."

"Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live."

"Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self."

"The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller."

"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven."

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

"So spake the Seraph Abdiel faithful found,Among the faithless, faithful only hee;Among innumerable false, unmov'd,Unshak'n, unseduc'd, unterrifi'dHis Loyaltie he kept, his Love, his Zeale;Nor number, nor example with him wroughtTo swerve from truth, or change his constant mindThough single. From amidst them forth he passd,Long way through hostile scorn, which he susteindSuperior, nor of violence fear'd aught;And with retorted scorn his back he turn'dOn those proud Towrs to swift destruction doom'd."

"A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,And pavement stars-as starts to thee appearSoon in the galaxy, that milky wayWhich mightly as a circling zone thou seestPowder'd wiht stars."

"What hath night to do with sleep?"

"Where more is meant than meets the ear."

"Truth never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her birth."

"Time is the subtle thief of youth."

"Boast not of what thou would'st have done but do."