How oft, in nations gone corrupt, And by their own devices brought down to servitude, That man chooses bondage before liberty. Bondage with ease before strenuous liberty.
Interpretation
People often prefer comfort and security over the challenges that come with freedom.
In this quote, John Milton reflects on the tendency of individuals in corrupted societies to willingly choose the security of servitude over the demanding responsibility of liberty. This observation serves as a critique of human nature, suggesting that ease and the familiar comforts of bondage can appear more appealing than the arduous journey towards true freedom, even when such freedom is inherently valuable.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one could quote Milton to highlight how comfort zones can hinder true freedom.
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.
We are all jars of clay, fragile and poor, yet we carry within us an immense treasure.
We can't live in a state of perpetual doubt, so we make up the best story possible and we live as if the story were true.
Things outside you are projections of what's inside you, and what's inside you is a projection of what's outside. So when you step into the labyrinth outside you, at the same time you're stepping into the labyrinth inside.
Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.
We lead two lives, and the half of our soul is madness, and half heaven is lit by a black sun. I say I am a man, is the other that hides in me?
I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.
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