Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell Receive thy new Possessor:
One who brings A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less then hee Whom Thunder hath made greater?
Here at least We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.
Paradise Lost: Book One, John Milton