Paradise Lost Quotes With Page Numbers. Paradise Lost Book by John Milton is a long-form epic poem consisting of 12 books and more than 10,000 lines of blank verse. Published in 1667, Milton’s poem is an argument on self-determination and God’s justice explored through a creative retelling of the fall of Adam and Eve.
The themes explored throughout the poem parallel Milton’s own life. He calls upon muses to help him see, an allusion to the seers in classic Greek epics and a literal plea because he was slowly becoming blind as he wrote this epic.
Milton was also staunchly against the English monarchy, and his belief that only God has ultimate rule and power over man is a major lesson articulated in Paradise Lost. Even Milton’s use of blank verse is metaphorical and literal: The poem is constructed of 10-syllable lines with no rhyme because Milton compared rhyming to “bondage,” much like the bondage of a citizen to their king.
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| Paradise Lost Quotes |
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.”
- “Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”
- “All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”
- “What is dark within me, illumine.”
- “This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.”
- “For so I created them free and free they must remain.”
- “Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. ”
- “From his lips/Not words alone pleased her.”
- “Our cure, to be no more; sad cure! ”.
You may also like to read: Paradise Lost Book Summary
Paradise Lost quotes with page numbers
- Satan tells Beelzebub that "the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n." Book 1, lines 254-5.
- Satan tries to make the best of the situation in hell, explaining "better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n." Book 1, line 263.
- Mammon advocates living to themselves in hell, "free, and to none accountable, preferring hard liberty before the easy yoke of servile pomp." Book 2, lines 255-7.
- He advocates a new course of action: attack mortal man, who Beelzebub describes as "less in power and excellence (than themselves), but favored more" by God. Book 2, lines 349-50.
- Sin agrees to unlock the gates and let him pass, telling him "thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee, whom follow?" Book 2, lines 864-5.
- God explains that he created man "sufficient to have stood, but free to fall." Book 3, line 99.
- God describes the time of the Last Judgement, when the world will burn and "God shall be all in all." Book 3, line 341.
- Uriel relates how, with God, "order from disorder sprung." Book 3, line 713.
- Satan, now back on earth, has a moment of doubt and despair in which he says that "the hell I suffer seems a heav'n." Book 4, line 78.
- He notices that they are "both not equal, as their sex not equal seemed." Book 4, lines 295-6.
- Satan explains that Adam's "eye sublime declared absolute rule." Book 4, lines 300-1.
- He hears Adam tell Eve that they must not eat of the Tree of Knowledge, calling it "the only sign of our obedience left," or else God will kill them. Book 4, line 428.
- Satan, having just learned that the Tree of Knowledge is forbidden to Adam and Eve, ponders "ignorance, is that their happy state,/ the proof of their obedience and their faith?" Book 4, lines 519-20.
- Soon, Adam decides that it's time to go to bed, and Eve obliges, stating "my author and disposer, what thou bidd'st unargued I obey." Book 4, lines 635-6.
- Before they fall asleep, Eve adds "God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise." Book 4, lines 637-8.
- Abdiel encounters Satan once again, this time telling him "I alone seemed in thy world erroneous to dissent from all: my sect thou seest, now learn too late how few sometimes may know, when thousands err." Book 6, lines 145-8.
- He tells Adam "warn thy weaker" (i.e., Eve), and "let it profit thee to have heard by terrible example the reward of disobedience" Book 6, line 909-11.
- Milton makes his third invocation, this time to Urania, asking the goddess what caused Adam and Eve to "transgress, and slight that sole command, so easily obeyed amid the choice of all tastes else to please their appetite." Book 7, lines 47-9.
- After the people in this new world spend enough time being obedient, heaven and earth will become "one kingdom, joy and union without end" Book 7, line 161.
- This divine figure calls himself the "author of all this thou seest above, or round thee or beneath." Book 8, lines 317-8.
- Adam has not received a true equal, however; he explains that Eve is "th' inferior, in the mind and inward faculties." Book 8, lines 541-2.
- Milton starts this book on a melancholy note, informing the reader that he must "change these notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach disloyal on the part of man, revolt and disobedience." Book 9, lines 5-8.
- He explains "only in destroying I find ease to my restless thoughts." Book 9, lines 129-30.
- Adam replies that God made them "not to irksome toil, but to delight." Book 9, line 242.
- Adam says, "solitude sometimes is best society, and short retirement urges sweet return." Book 9, lines 249-50.
- He asks "Wherein lies th'offense, that man should thus attain to know?" Book 9, lines 725-6.
- Oblivious Eve is thrilled to have received knowledge, and wonders whether she should let Adam partake in it or not tell him and keep it to her advantage so to "render [herself] more equal." Book 9, line 825.
- The Son asks Adam if Eve was his God or superior, since his "perfection far excelled hers in all real dignity." Book 10, line 150-1.
- Secondly, woman is given pain in childbirth, and the Son explains "to thy husband's will thine shall submit, he over thee shall rule." Book 10, lines 195-6.
- Finally, man gets his punishment: he'll have to toil hard in the fields to get food "till thou return into the ground, for thou out of the ground wast taken: know thy birth, for dust thou art, and shalt to dust return." Book 10, lines 206-8.
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