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John Milton Quotes about Pain

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But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and excessive, overturns All patience.

But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and excessive, overturns All patience.

John Milton
Patience, Pain, Evil
1665 Paradise Lost (published1667), bk.6, l.461-3.

Of four infernal rivers that disgorge/ Into the burning Lake their baleful streams;/Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate,/Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;/Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud/ Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon/ Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage./ Far off from these a slow and silent stream,/ Lethe the River of Oblivion rolls/ Her wat'ry Labyrinth whereof who drinks,/ Forthwith his former state and being forgets,/ Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

John Milton
Pain, Hate, Grief
John Milton, “Paradise Lost: Book 02”

Who would not, finding way, break loose from hell, . . . . And boldly venture to whatever place Farthest from pain?

John Milton
Pain, Venture, Way
John Milton, Elijah Fenton (1831). “Paradise lost : a poem in twelve books”, p.99

Ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

John Milton
Pain, Ease, Void
John Milton (1773). “The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost: Rendered Into Grammatical Construction ... with Notes Grammatical, Geographical, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory. To which are Prefixed Remarks on Ellipsis and Transposition ...”, p.241

And that must end us, that must be our cure: To be no more. Sad cure! For who would lose, Though full of pain, this intellectual being, Those thoughts that wander through eternity, To perish, rather, swallowed up and lost In the wide womb of uncreated night Devoid of sense and motion?

John Milton
Pain, Night, Intellectual
'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 2, l. 146

Is it true, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer the most? That the strongest wander furthest and most hopelessly are lost? That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain? That the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?

John Milton
Pain, Heaven, Suffering

Sense of pleasure we may well Spare out of life perhaps, and not repine, But live content, which is the calmest life; But pain is perfect misery, the worst Of evils, and excessive, overturns All patience.

John Milton
Pain, Evil, Perfect
John Milton, Elijah Fenton, Samuel Johnson (1821). “Paradise lost”, p.182

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