Paradise Lost Quotes

Quote 1: 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

Quote 2: 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

Quote 3: 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

Quote 4: 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

Quote 5: 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

Quote 6: God explains that he created man "sufficient to have stood, but free to fall." Book 3, line 99

Quote 7: God describes the time of the Last Judgement, when the world will burn and "God shall be all in all." Book 3, line 341

Quote 8: Uriel relates how, with God, "order from disorder sprung." Book 3, line 713

Quote 9: 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

Quote 10: He notices that they are "both not equal, as their sex not equal seemed." Book 4, lines 295-6

Quote 11: Satan explains that Adam's "eye sublime declared absolute rule." Book 4, lines 300-1

Quote 12: 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

Quote 13: 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

Quote 14: 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

Quote 15: 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

Quote 16: 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

Quote 17: 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

Quote 18: 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

Quote 19: 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

Quote 20: This divine figure calls himself the "author of all this thou seest above, or round thee or beneath." Book 8, lines 317-8

Quote 21: 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

Quote 22: 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

Quote 23: He explains "only in destroying I find ease to my restless thoughts." Book 9, lines 129-30

Quotes 24: Adam replies that God made them "not to irksome toil, but to delight." Book 9, line 242

Quotes 25: Adam says, "solitude sometimes is best society, and short retirement urges sweet return." Book 9, lines 249-50

Quote 26: He asks "Wherein lies th'offense, that man should thus attain to know?" Book 9, lines 725-6

Quote 27: 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

Quote 28: 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

Quote 29: 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

Quote 30: 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

Quote 31: She says "these are thy magnific deeds, thy trophies, which thou view'st as not thine own, thou art their author and prime architect." Book 10, lines 354-6

Quote 32: He asks God "Why has thou added the sense of endless woes? Inexplicable thy justice seems." Book 10, lines 753-5

Quote 33: She says "both have sinned, but thou against God only, I against God and thee." Book 10, lines 930-1

Quote 34: Michael tells Adam, "you have seen one world begin and end and man as from a second stock proceed." Book 12, line 7

Quote 35: Michael says, "the law of God exact he shall fulfill/ both by obedience and by love." Book 12, lines 403-4

Quote 36: A teary Adam and Eve await their future: "the world was all before them, where to choose/ their place of rest, and Providence their guide:/ They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow,/ Through Eden took their solitary way." Book 12, lines 646-9