John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 226
| John Milton. (1608–1674) (continued) |
| 2498 |
| High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat, by merit rais’d To that bad eminence. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 1. |
| 2499 |
| Surer to prosper than prosperity Could have assur’d us. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 39. |
| 2500 |
| The strongest and the fiercest spirit That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 44. |
| 2501 |
| Rather than be less, Car’d not to be at all. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 47. |
| 2502 |
| My sentence is for open war. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 51. |
| 2503 |
| That in our proper motion we ascend Up to our native seat: descent and fall To us is adverse. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 75. |
| 2504 |
| When the scourge Inexorable and the torturing hour Call us to penance. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 90. |
| 2505 |
| Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 105. |
| 2506 |
| But all was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropp’d manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason, 1 to perplex and dash Maturest counsels. |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 112. |
| 2507 |
| Th’ ethereal mould Incapable of stain would soon expel Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, Victorious. Thus repuls’d, our final hope Is flat despair. 2 |
| Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 139. |
| Note 1. Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule…as making the worse appear the better reason.—Diogenes Laertius: Socrates, v. [back] |
| Note 2. Our hope is loss, our hope but sad despair.—William Shakespeare: Henry VI. part iii. act ii. sc. 3. [back] |