Top 100 John Dryden Quotes
#1. Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.
John Dryden
#2. Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.
John Dryden
#3. The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
John Dryden
#4. A farce is that in poetry which grotesque (caricature) is in painting. The persons and actions of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsistent with the characters of mankind; and grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this.
John Dryden
#5. When we view elevated ideas of Nature, the result of that view is admiration, which is always the cause of pleasure.
John Dryden
#6. Discover the opinion of your enemies, which is commonly the truest; for they will give you no quarter, and allow nothing to complaisance.
John Dryden
#7. Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
John Dryden
#9. O freedom, first delight of human kind!
John Dryden
#11. For every inch that is not fool, is rogue.
John Dryden
#12. Ill news is wing'd with fate, and flies apace.
John Dryden
#13. Night came, but unattended with repose.
Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close.
Alone and black she came; no friendly stars arose.
John Dryden
#14. While I am compassed round With mirth, my soul lies hid in shades of grief, Whence, like the bird of night, with half-shut eyes, She peeps, and sickens at the sight of day.
John Dryden
#15. Genius must be born, it can't be taught.
John Dryden
#16. And he, who servilely creeps after sense, Is safe, but ne'er will reach an excellence.
John Dryden
#17. Like pilgrims to th' appointed place we tend;
The World's an Inn, and Death the journey's end.
John Dryden
#19. Death in itself is nothing; but we fear.
To be we know not what, we know not where.
John Dryden
#20. Restless at home, and ever prone to range.
John Dryden
#21. Love is a passion which kindles honor into noble acts.
John Dryden
#22. For your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.
John Dryden
#23. Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own web from their own entrails spin; And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch.
John Dryden
#24. By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.
John Dryden
#25. So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.
John Dryden
#26. By viewing nature, nature's handmaid art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow: Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.
John Dryden
#27. And write whatever Time shall bring to pass
With pens of adamant on plates of brass.
John Dryden
#28. When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay:
To-morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possesst.
John Dryden
#29. If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.
John Dryden
#30. Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.
John Dryden
#31. Seas are the fields of combat for the winds; but when they sweep along some flowery coast, their wings move mildly, and their rage is lost.
John Dryden
#32. The soft complaining flute, In dying notes, discovers The woes of hopeless lovers.
John Dryden
#34. Since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in poetry or painting, must produce a much greater; for both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature.
John Dryden
#35. Swift was the race, but short the time to run.
John Dryden
#36. Virgil and Horace [were] the severest writers of the severest age.
John Dryden
#39. An ugly woman in a rich habit set out with jewels nothing can become.
John Dryden
#40. But 'tis the talent of our English nation, Still to be plotting some new reformation.
John Dryden
#41. Whatever is, is in its causes just;
But purblind man
Sees but a part o' th' chain; the nearest link;
His eyes not carrying to that equal beam
That poises all above.
John Dryden
#43. The conscience of a people is their power.
John Dryden
#44. For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.
John Dryden
#45. For thee, sweet month; the groves green liveries wear.
If not the first, the fairest of the year;
For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours,
And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers.
When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun
The sultry tropic fears, and moves more slowly on.
John Dryden
#46. Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne'er pardon who have done wrong.
John Dryden
#48. But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.
John Dryden
#49. A thing well said will be wit in all languages.
John Dryden
#50. Fortune's unjust; she ruins oft the brave, and him who should be victor, makes the slave.
John Dryden
#51. And after hearing what our Church can say, If still our reason runs another way, That private reason 'tis more just to curb, Than by disputes the public peace disturb; For points obscure are of small use to learn, But common quiet is mankind's concern.
John Dryden
#52. For mysterious things of faith, rely on the proponent, Heaven's authority.
John Dryden
#53. Government itself at length must fall To nature's state, where all have right to all.
John Dryden
#54. None are so busy as the fool and the knave.
John Dryden
#55. Good sense and good nature are never separated; and good nature is the product of right reason.
John Dryden
#56. Death only this mysterious truth unfolds,
The mighty soul how small a body holds.
John Dryden
#57. Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise, for cure, on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend.
John Dryden
#58. What passions cannot music raise or quell?
John Dryden
#59. Plots, true or false, are necessary things, To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.
John Dryden
#60. [T]he Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unitez , or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.
John Dryden
#61. Virtue without success is a fair picture shown by an ill light; but lucky men are favorites of heaven; all own the chief, when fortune owns the cause.
John Dryden
#63. The province of the soul is large enough to fill up every cranny of your time, and leave you much to answer for if one wretch be damned by your neglect.
John Dryden
#64. Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made still a blundering kind of melody;
Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in;
Free from all meaning whether good or bad,
And in one word, heroically mad.
John Dryden
#65. Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes;
When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes.
John Dryden
#66. The people have a right supreme
To make their kings, for Kings are made for them.
All Empire is no more than Pow'r in Trust,
Which when resum'd, can be no longer just.
Successionm for the general good design'd,
In its own wrong a Nation cannot bind.
John Dryden
#67. To die is landing on some distant shore.
John Dryden
#68. Raw in the fields the rude militia swarms, Mouth without hands; maintained at vast expense, In peace a charge, in war a weak defence.
John Dryden
#69. Reason saw not, till Faith sprung the Light.
John Dryden
#71. For all the happiness mankind can gain Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain.
John Dryden
#72. They live too long who happiness outlive.
John Dryden
#74. The true Amphitryon is the Amphitryon where we dine.
John Dryden
#75. I strongly wish for what I faintly hope; like the daydreams of melancholy men, I think and think in things impossible, yet love to wander in that golden maze.
John Dryden
#76. Let cheerfulness on happy fortune wait.
John Dryden
#77. Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
John Dryden
#78. Fool that I was, upon my eagle's wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.
John Dryden
#79. The Fates but only spin the coarser clue; The finest of the wool is left for you.
John Dryden
#80. When he spoke, what tender words he used! So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow, They melted as they fell.
John Dryden
#81. Griefs assured are felt before they come.
John Dryden
#82. When a man's life is under debate,
The judge can ne'er too long deliberate.
John Dryden
#83. Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
John Dryden
#84. None would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; And, from the dregs of life, think to receive, What the first sprightly running could not give.
John Dryden
#85. Bacchus ever fair and young, Drinking joys did first ordain. Bachus's blessings are a treasure, Drinking is the soldier's pleasure, Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure- Sweet is pleasure after pain.
John Dryden
#86. The end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction; and he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the offender than the physician to the patient when he prescribes harsh remedies.
John Dryden
#87. None are so busy as the fool and knave.
John Dryden
#88. Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
John Dryden
#89. We first make our habits, then our habits make us.
John Dryden
#90. Thus like a Captive in an Isle confin'd,
Man walks at large, a Pris'ner of the Mind
John Dryden
#91. Confidence is the feeling we have before knowing all the facts
John Dryden
#92. It's a hard world, neighbors, if a man's oath must be his master.
John Dryden
#93. The first is the law, the last prerogative.
John Dryden
#94. Content with poverty, my soul I arm; And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
John Dryden
#95. Satire is a kind of poetry in which human vices are reprehended.
John Dryden
#96. And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere Free from corruption, or entire, or clear, Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire In all things which our needful faith require.
John Dryden
#97. Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go,
And view the ocean leaning on the sky:
From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know,
And on the Lunar world securely pry.
John Dryden
#98. He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit.
John Dryden
#99. I'm a little wounded, but I am not slain; I will lay me down to bleed a while. Then I'll rise and fight again.
John Dryden
#100. What precious drops are those, Which silently each other's track pursue, Bright as young diamonds in their faint dew?
John Dryden
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