8 John Milton Quotes on Freedom

John Milton quotes on freedom

1. Areopagitica (1644)

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

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

42. 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.

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

66. The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.

67. Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasures free.

78. Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony.