Please Help! Source of Quote, Believed to be JOHN MILTON, PARADISE LOST

[nbennett622]

Hello,
I would love to use this quote I came across in some research, which I believe is sourced from Milton's 18th century epic "Paradise Lost"...however in the full text i cant to seem to find it verbatim. Does anyone know the ORIGINAL source of the quote, and if its derivative from Milton's work?

"Innocence, once lost, can never be regained; Darkness, once gazed upon, can never be lost."

The second part may be relatively altered, 'gazed' has been seen as 'found' and/or 'when found' as well as 'lost' may be 'forgotten'.

Please help, as misquoting is my pet-peeve!!!

Nicole

[Hawkman]

I'm not sure how accurate this may be but the quote is atributed to Niel Gaiman through the character Lucifer in the DC Comic, featuring Constantine. "I could never be an angel; innocence once lost can never be regained..." However, I have skimmed Pradise Lost and dind't find it. A number of sites claim Milton as the original source but I couldn't confirm this either. It's not in the dictionary of quotations and without re reading my copy of Miltons Complete works I'm unlikely to find out in a hurry!

Hope your quest is successful.

[togre]

I used the search function to search Milton's works on this site. I searched both "innocence" and "darkness" separately. None of the results showed anything even close to this quote. Perhaps a different translation (perhaps). Milton's works on here are Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and others.