It is Chastity, my brother. She that has that is clad in complete steel.
Interpretation
Chastity is a powerful virtue that protects and strengthens one's character.
In this quote, John Milton personifies chastity as a formidable force, suggesting that it serves as both a shield and a source of strength for individuals. By likening chastity to being 'clad in complete steel', he emphasizes its protective qualities, implying that those who value and embody chastity are armoured against moral challenges and temptations.
In practice
During a speech about personal values, one might quote Milton to underline the importance of virtue.
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've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.
Do not go to the garden of flowers!_x000D_ O friend! go not there;_x000D_ In your body is the garden of flowers._x000D_ Take your seat on the thousand petals of the_x000D_ lotus, and there gaze on the infinite beauty.
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.
[I] learned ... that friends are a good source of food and soul when one has not yet gotten the hang of cooking or living (as opposed to dying) alone. That nothing-not booze, not love, not sex, not work, not moving from state to state-will make the past disappear. Only time and patience heal things. I learned that cutting up your arms in an attempt to make the pain move from inside to outside, from soul to skin, is futile. That death is a cop-out. I tried all of these things.
Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.
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