John Milton
English poet and polemicist (1608 to 1674); author of Paradise Lost and Areopagitica.
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What they believe
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Whoever destroys a good book kills reason itself
Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1644This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 16 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
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Whoever destroys a good book kills reason itself
Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Bad books can help a discerning reader to discover, refute, warn and illustrate
Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoction; but herein the difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
A virtue that never goes out to meet its adversary is not worth praising
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
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If a fool stays a fool with any book, restricting books only deprives the wise
And again, if it be true that a wise man, like a good refiner, can gather gold out of the drossiest volume, and that a fool will be a fool with the best book, yea or without book; there is no reason that we should deprive a wise man of any advantage to his wisdom, while we seek to restrain from a fool, that which being restrained will be no hindrance to his folly.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Licensing of books does nothing toward the end it was made for
Which is what I promised to deliver next: that this order of licensing conduces nothing to the end for which it was framed; and hath almost prevented me by being clear already while thus much hath been explaining.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
God gave Adam reason, and reason is the freedom to choose
When God gave him reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for reason is but choosing; he had been else a mere artificial Adam, such an Adam as he is in the motions.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
You cannot remove sin by removing the material of sin
They are not skilful considerers of human things, who imagine to remove sin by removing the matter of sin; for, besides that it is a huge heap increasing under the very act of diminishing, though some part of it may for a time be withdrawn from some persons, it cannot from all, in such a universal thing as books are; and when this is done, yet the sin remains entire.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
God surely values one person growing in virtue more than restraining ten vicious ones
And were I the chooser, a dream of well-doing should be preferred before many times as much the forcible hindrance of evil-doing. For God sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous person more than the restraint of ten vicious.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Licensing is the greatest discouragement and affront to learning and learned men
I lastly proceed from the no good it can do, to the manifest hurt it causes, in being first the greatest discouragement and affront that can be offered to learning, and to learned men.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Belief held only on authority makes even a true belief a heresy
A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Truth must keep flowing or it sickens into conformity and tradition
Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Among people who desire to learn, differing opinion is knowledge in the making
Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
The liberty to know, speak and argue freely by conscience is above all liberties
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
In a free and open encounter, truth is not put to the worse by falsehood
Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
It is better that many be tolerated than all be compelled
Yet if all cannot be of one mind—as who looks they should be?—this doubtless is more wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that many be tolerated, rather than all compelled.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
Books found mischievous or libellous after printing are best dealt with by fire and the executioner
Those which otherwise come forth, if they be found mischievous and libellous, the fire and the executioner will be the timeliest and the most effectual remedy that man's prevention can use.
Areopagitica (1644) Said c. 1644
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