John Milton Quotes About Liberty

Quotes about: Liberty

• Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Giving, Liberty

  'Areopagitica' (1644) p. 34

• For stories teach us, that liberty sought out of season, in a corrupt and degenerate age, brought Rome itself to a farther slavery: for liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be handled by just and virtuous men; to bad and dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own hands: neither is it completely given, but by them who have the happy skill to know what is grievance and unjust to a people, and how to remove it wisely; what good laws are wanting, and how to frame them substantially, that good men may enjoy the freedom which they merit, and the bad the curb which they need.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Men, Skills

  John Milton (1851). “The Prose Works of John Milton: With a Biographical Introduction”, p.245

• None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.

  John Milton

  Love, Freedom, Men

  The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

• License they mean when they cry Liberty; For who loves that, must first be wise and good.

  John Milton

  Love, Wise, Mean

  "I did but prompt the age" l. 11 (1673)

• The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil liberty.

  John Milton

  Spiritual, Freedom, Men

  John Milton, James Augustus St. John (1871). “The Prose Works of John Milton ...: With a Preface, Preliminary Remarks, and Notes”, p.133

• No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.

  John Milton

  Freedom, Stupid, Reality

  The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)

• The liberty of conscience, which above all other things ought to be to all men dearest and most precious.

  John Milton

  Men, Atheism, Liberty

  John Milton (2012). “John Milton Prose: Major Writings on Liberty, Politics, Religion, and Education”, p.680, John Wiley & Sons

• But what more oft in nations grown corrupt,
  And by their vices brought to servitude,
  Than to love bondage more than liberty,
  Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.

  John Milton

  Liberty, Apathy, Ease

  "The Poetical Works. A New Ed. Carefully Rev. from the Text of Thomas Newton. With Illustr. by William Harvey".

• The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.

  John Milton

  Sweet, Nymphs, Liberty

  'L'Allegro' (1645) l. 31

• Behold now this vast city [London]; a city of refuge, the mansion-house of liberty, encompassed and surrounded with His protection.

  John Milton

  Cities, House, Liberty

  'Areopagitica' (1644) p. 31

• Daughter to that good Earl, once President Of England's Council, and her Treasury, Who lived in both, unstained with gold or fee, And left them both, more in himself content, Till sad the breaking of that Parliament Broke him, as that dishonest victory At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, Killed with report that old man eloquent. Though later born than to have known the days Wherein your father flourished, yet by you, Madam, methinks I see him living yet; So well your words his noble virtues praise, That all both judge you to relate them true, And to possess them, honoured Margaret.

  John Milton

  Life, Daughter, Father

  John Milton (1822). “The Poetical Works of John Milton: With the Life of the Author ...”, p.216

• When complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for.

  John Milton

  Wise, Men, Liberty

  'Areopagitica' (1644) p. 1

• how wearisom Eternity so spent in worship paid To whom we hate. Let us not then pursue By force impossible, by leave obtain'd Unacceptable, though in Heav'n, our state Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek Our own good from our selves, and from our own Live to our selves, though in this vast recess, Free, and to none accountable, preferring Hard liberty before the easie yoke Of servile Pomp

  John Milton

  Hate, Self, Liberty

  John Milton (2012). “Paradise Lost: Parallel Prose Edition”, p.66, Broadview Press

• How oft, in nations gone corrupt, And by their own devices brought down to servitude, That man chooses bondage before liberty. Bondage with ease before strenuous liberty.

  John Milton

  Men, Liberty, Gone

• I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
  By the known rules of ancient liberty,
  When straight a barbarous noise environs me
  Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs.

  John Milton

  Dog, Owl, Age

  'Sonnet' 12 'I did but prompt the age' (1673)

• For liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be handled by just and virtuous men; to bad and dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own hands.

  John Milton

  Men, Hands, Liberty

  John Milton (1851). “The Prose Works of John Milton: With a Biographical Introduction”, p.245

• Is it just or reasonable, that most voices against the main end of government should enslave the less number that would be free? more just it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number compel a greater to retain, which can be no wrong to them, their liberty, than that a greater number, for the pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most injuriously to be their fellow-slaves. They who seek nothing but their own just liberty, have always right to win it and to keep it, whenever they have power, be the voices never so numerous that oppose it.

  John Milton

  Winning, Voice, Numbers

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