John Milton Quotes
Our state cannot be severed, we are one, One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Oxford University Press, 2004, bk. 9, lines 958-959.
Hall’s novel was banned in England and America on obscenity grounds for the quoted sentence. The characters were both women and the veiled implication of possible sex between two women was then considered pornography per se. The New York Judge who found the publisher guilty said “the book tends to debauch public morals.” The guilty verdict was overturned on appeal. As a result of the “negative publicity” the book sold over 1 million copies in the author’s lifetime and was translated into 11 languages. Suppression had the effect of giving the book enormous publicity which is often true in censorship cases. If nothing else, people want to see what the society says that they should not read.
Franklin suggested most of the text and graphic symbols that were minted on what is generally considered the first American Coin. The purpose of this text, which appears in the Center of one side of the coin was to emphasize the unity of the first 13 colonies just declaring their independence. This coin is for American collectors, one of the most valuable.
John Milton was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious shifts and political instability, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Written in blank verse, Paradise Lost is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever written.
