Satan has captured the imagination of artists for centuries

Yet few writers understood the depths of his evil like John Milton

He wrote one sentence that captured Satan’s hatred like no one else in history…

Satan appears in Milton’s work Paradise Lost, a retelling of the Biblical Fall of Man:

After a failed rebellion against God, an unrepentant Satan proclaims himself an eternal enemy to the Lord

The most striking line in this poem is his famous and chilling war cry...

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven

This is Satan’s slogan

It not only reveals him to be unrepentant, but it also explains:

- His original sin

- Why he rebelled

- What the root of all evil is

So what was Satan’s original sin?

Satan’s original sin was pride

He is said to have been the most favored of all angels, but then he grew an ego and tried to surpass God himself

Thus he rebelled...but this rebellion was more than a mere power struggle

Satan’s rebellion was the birth of all evil

In other words, pride is the root of all evil

But Milton stresses this isn’t just a fairytale

He says Satan infected mankind with this same exact pride…

After Satan’s defeat, God created Adam and Eve, who lived peacefully in the Garden of Eden

God gave them only one rule:

Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil

But soon Satan, in the form of a serpent, slithers into the Garden

He deceives Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit

By doing so they:

- Defy God

- Discover good and evil

- Nearly “become like Gods”

As a result, they are kicked out of Eden and divorced from Paradise

Do you notice a pattern here?

Adam and Eve’s fall mirrors Satan’s fall:

- They defied God

- They can choose between good and evil (obey or rebel against God)

So pride is the root of all evil in mankind, too

But does this mean that Satan, by corrupting mankind, has won?

Not quite…

After the Fall, Satan slithers back to Hell

God, reasserting his dominance, punishes Satan and his followers — He’s still in charge

Meanwhile, the poem ends back on Earth with a surprising message of hope

The Archangel Michael gives Adam a prophecy:

Because of your pride, evil will run the world and mankind will suffer… but a savior will come to bring you salvation

In the meantime, Michael says, your life comes down to one choice:

Will you reign in Hell or serve in Heaven?

This, according to Milton, is the meaning to life

You can follow Satan, embrace pride, and live by your own rules

Or you can follow God, embrace virtue, and obey the good

Simply put, your destiny is a matter of choice