John Dryden Quotes

344 Sourced Quotes

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

John Dryden
Oh that my Pow'r to Saving were confin'd:
Why am I forc'd, like Heav'n, against my mind,
To make Examples of another Kind?
Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.

John Dryden
From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, But save me most from my petitioners. Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can crave.

John Dryden
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And Music shall untune the sky.

John Dryden
As long as words a different sense will bear,
And each may be his own interpreter,
Our airy faith will no foundation find;
The word's a weathercock for every wind.

John Dryden
I trade both with the living and the dead, for the enrichment of our native language.

John Dryden
How easy 'tis, when Destiny proves kind, With full-spread sails to run before the wind!

John Dryden
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.

John Dryden
Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife,
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.

John Dryden
Refined himself to soul, to curb the sense
And made almost a sin of abstinence.

John Dryden
And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd
For one fair female, lost him half the kind.

John Dryden
Welcome, thou kind deceiver! Thou best of thieves; who, with an easy key, Dost open life, and, unperceived by us, Even steal us from ourselves.

John Dryden
O gracious God! how far have we
Profaned thy heavenly gift of poesy!

John Dryden
He's somewhat lewd; but a well-meaning mind;
Weeps much; fights little; but is wond'rous kind.

John Dryden
His hair just grizzled,
As in a green old age.

John Dryden
All human things are subject to decay,
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.

John Dryden
'T is not for nothing that we life pursue;
It pays our hopes with something still that's new.

John Dryden
As the true height and bigness of a star Exceeds the measures of th' astronomer.

John Dryden
Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed, Yet, sprung from high, is of celestial seed: In God 'tisglory; and when men aspire, 'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire.

John Dryden
Ah, how sweet it is to love! Ah, how gay is young Desire! And what pleasing pains we prove When we first approach Love's fire!

John Dryden
None, none descends into himself, to find
The secret imperfections of his mind:
But every one is eagle-ey'd to see
Another's faults, and his deformity.

John Dryden
Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie than the will can choose an apparent evil.

John Dryden
The first Physicians by Debauch were made: Excess began, and Sloth sustains the Trade.

John Dryden
A coward is the kindest animal;
'Tis the most forgiving creature in a fight.

John Dryden
Jealousy's a proof of love, But 'tis a weak and unavailing medicine; It puts out the disease and makes it show, But has no power to cure.

John Dryden
To die for faction is a common evil, But to be hanged for nonsense is the devil.

John Dryden
Are scatter'd from their heap, and puff'd away.

John Dryden
The Fates but only spin the coarser clue; The finest of the wool is left for you.

John Dryden
Who climbs the grammar-tree, distinctly knows Where noun, and verb, and participle grows.

John Dryden
As when the dove returning bore the mark Of earth restored to the long labouring ark; The relics of mankind, secure at rest, Oped every window to receive the guest, And the fair bearer of the message bless'd.

John Dryden