So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;Evil,be thou my good.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a rejection of hope and moral remorse, embracing evil as a potential source of goodness in despair.
In this quote, John Milton expresses a deep sense of loss and abandonment of hope, indicating a profound philosophical shift towards embracing evil as an alternative to the pain associated with lost goodness. It suggests a resignation to despair where traditional moral guides are rejected in favor of a darker, perhaps more authentic experience of existence, questioning the nature of good and evil.
In practice
In a debate about the nature of good and evil, this quote can be used to illustrate a perspective that challenges conventional morality.
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.
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.
The perplexity of life arises from there being too many interesting things in it for us to be interested properly in any of them.
I am the history of the rejection of who I am
We're not a racist organization, because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is just - it's a byproduct of capitalism.
As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production.
If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that will assure you have a highly knowledgeable elite and an ignorant mass.
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