He was, as every truly great poet has ever been, a good man; but finding it impossible to realize his own aspirations, either in religion or politics, or society, he gave up his heart to the living spirit and light within him, and avenged himself on the world by enriching it with this record of his own transcendental ideal.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

ideals john-milton poet

Related Quotes

A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

AccuratelyActBorrow

They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell.

— John Milton

blind-poetepic-poemjohn

Celestial light, shine inward...that I may see and tell of things invisible to mortal sight

— John Milton

john-miltonspirituality

Milton was the gold standard of religious poets for English and American scholars. But Milton wrote of Hell and Heaven from above and below, respectively, not from the inside: safer advantages.

— Matthew Pearl

dante-alighierijohn-milton

ALL WHO HAVE THEIR REWARD ON EARTH, THE FRUITS OF PAINFUL SUPERSTITION AND BLIND ZEAL, NOUGHT SEEKING BUT THE PRAISE OF MEN, HERE FIND FIT RETRIBUTION, EMPTY AS THEIR DEED

— John Milton

john-miltonparadise-lost