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Aeropagitica
«TRUTH CAN'T BE TRADED IN BY TICKETS AND STATUTES»
Non dobbiamo pensare di rendere tutta la conoscenza nel Paese un genere controllato, di marchiarla come il nostro panno largo - L'autore di «Paradiso perduto» mira a contenere gli interventi censori - Pił di un nemico che bloccasse i nostri porti, la censura impedisce l'importazione della nostra pił ricca mercanzia, la Veritą
John Milton

And as Licensing is a particular disesteem of every knowing person alive, and most injurious to the written labours and monuments of the dead, so to me it seems an undervaluing and vilifying of the whole nation. I cannot set so light by all the invention, the art, the wit, the grave and solid judgment which is in England, as that it can be comprehended in any twenty capacities how good soever, much less that it should not pass except their superintendence be over it, except it be sifted and strained with their strainers, that it should be uncurrent without their manual stamp. Truth and understanding are not such wares as to be monopolized and traded in by tickets and statutes and standards. We must not think to make a staple commodity of all the knowledge in the land, to mark and licence it like our broadcloth and our woolpacks. What is it but a servitude like that imposed by the Philistines, not to be allowed the sharpening of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licensing forges? Had anyone written and divulged erroneous things and scandalous to honest life, misusing and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason among men, if after conviction this only censure were adjudged him that he should never henceforth write but what were first examined by an appointed officer, whose hand should be annexed to pass his credit for him that now he might be safely read; it could not be apprehended less than a disgraceful punishment. Whence to include the whole nation, and those that never yet thus offended, under such a diffident and suspectful prohibition, may plainly be understood what a disparagement it is. So much the more, whenas debtors and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, but unoffensive books must not stir forth without a visible jailer in their title.
Thus much we are hindered and disinured by this course of licensing, toward the true knowledge of what we seem to know. For how much it hurts and hinders the licensers themselves in the calling of their ministry, more than any secular employment, if they will discharge that office as they ought, so that of necessity they must neglect either the one duty or the other, I insist not, because it is a particular, but leave it to their own conscience, how they will decide it there.
There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay open, the incredible loss and detriment that this plot of licensing puts us to; more than if some enemy at sea should stop up all our havens and ports and creeks, it hinders and retards the importation of our richest merchandise, truth .
Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when he ascended, and his Apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb, still as they could find them. We have not yet found them all, Lords and Commons, nor ever shall do, till her Master's second coming; he shall bring together every joint and member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection.

• Broadcloth: panno largo, tessuto pettinato a doppia altezza
• Calling: vocazione, professione
• Coulters: coltri, vomeri
• Deceivers: ingannatori
• (Dis)esteem: (mancanza di) stima
• Disparagement: sfregio
• Judgement: discernimento
• Jailer: carceriere
• Labours: opere
• Licensing: censura, concessione di licenza
• Lord and Commons: Pari e Deputati
• Ministry: sacerdozio, ministero
• Officer: funzionario
• Plot of licensing: complotto censorio
• Second coming: secondo avvento, seconda venuta
• Secular employment: occupazione secolare
• (to) sift: setacciare
• Stamp: sigillo
• Standards: garanzie, norme
• Statutes: patenti, leggi
• Strainers: filtri, colini
• Superintendence: controllo
• Tickets: licenze, brevetti
• Wares: merci, articoli
• Woolpacks: balle di lana