How gladly would I meet mortality, my sentence, and be earth in sensible! How glad would lay me down, as in my mother's lap! There I should rest, and sleep secure.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a longing for peace and acceptance of death as a return to a state of comfort akin to being in a mother's arms.
In this quote, John Milton reflects on the themes of mortality and the deep desire for tranquility that comes with accepting one's death. He likens the end of life to a restful return to a nurturing state, evoking feelings of safety and innocence, much like a child resting in their mother's lap. This metaphorical imagery illustrates how the concept of mortality can be seen not only as an end but also as a release into a state of peace and security.
In practice
This quote can be used in a eulogy to express a comforting perspective on death.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms: Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide; They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones.
Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss
The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.
Apt words have power to suage the tumors of a troubled mind.
I learned to make things not matter, to put a seal on my hopes and place them on a high shelf, out of reach. And by telling myself that there was nothing inside those hopes anyway, I avoided the wounds of deep disappointment. The pain was no worse than the quick sting of a booster shot. And yet thinking about this makes me ache again. How is it that as a child I knew I should have been loved more? Is everyone born with a bottomless emotional resevoir?
The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable.
The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.
The dialectic cannot stop short before the conceptsof health and sickness, nor indeed before their siblings reason and unreason.
A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree or certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world suffers.
Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
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