Blind mouths! That scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Milton criticizes corrupt clergy who are greedy and incompetent, lacking even basic pastoral skills.
- In plain terms
- Corrupt leaders are greedy and do not know how to do their jobs.
- What can you take from it?
- Leaders should be competent and humble, not greedy.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes a leader incompetent?
- How do we identify greed in authority?
Another view
The metaphor is harsh and may oversimplify individual roles.
More from John Milton
Last came, and last did go, The Pilot of the Galilean lake; Two massy keys he bore of metals twain, (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).
Permalink to quote #107 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread: Besides what the grim wolf…
Permalink to quote #109 It was that fatal and perfidious bark, Built in th' eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.
Permalink to quote #106
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