John Dryden Quotes

344 Sourced Quotes

The unhappy man, who once has trail'd a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.

John Dryden
Want is a bitter and a hateful good,
Because its virtues are not understood;
Yet many things, impossible to thought,
Have been by need to full perfection brought.
The daring of the soul proceeds from thence,
Sharpness of wit, and active diligence;
Prudence at once, and fortitude it gives;
And, if in patience taken, mends our lives.

John Dryden
But when to sin our biased nature leans, The careful Devil is still at hand with means; And providently pimps for ill desires.

John Dryden
The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees. Three centuries he grows, and three he stays Supreme in state; and in three more decays.

John Dryden
The gods, (if gods to goodness are inclined If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert!

John Dryden
My heart's so full of joy, That I shall do some wild extravagance Of love in public; and the foolish world, Which knows not tenderness, will think me mad.

John Dryden
Happy the man, who studying Nature's laws, Through known effects can trace the secret cause — His mind, possessing in a quiet state, Fearless of fortune and resigned to fate.

John Dryden
The sun was enter'd into Capricorn; Which, by their bad astronomer's account, That week the Virgin Balance should remount.

John Dryden
Good Heaven, whose darling attribute we find is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind, abhors the cruel.

John Dryden
Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes.

John Dryden
The propriety of thoughts and words, which are the hidden beauties of a play, are but confusedly judged in the vehemence of action.

John Dryden
Maintain your post: That's all the fame you need; For 'tis impossible you should proceed.

John Dryden
And oft, before tempestuous winds arise, The seeming stars fall headlong from the skies, And shooting through the darkness, gild the night With sweeping flories and long trails of light.

John Dryden
A goldfinch there I saw, with gawdy pride Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side, Still pecking as she pass'd; and still she drew The sweets from every flower, and suck'd the dew: Sufficed at length, she warbled in her throat, And turned her voice to many a merry note...

John Dryden
I am devilishly afraid, that's certain; but... I'll sing, that I may seem valiant.

John Dryden
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
That, if the Gentiles, (whom no Law inspir'd,)
By Nature did what was by Law requir'd;
They, who the written Rule and never known,
Were to themselves both Rule and Law alone:
To Natures plain Indictment they shall plead;
And, by their Conscience, be condemn'd or freed.

John Dryden
My whole life Has been a golden dream of love and friendship.

John Dryden
Thoughts cannot form themselves in words so horrid As can express my guilt.

John Dryden
Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or, at least shut up in fewer words.

John Dryden
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
At home the hateful names of parties cease, And factious souls are wearied into peace.

John Dryden
The good we have enjoyed from Heaven's free will, and shall we murmur to endure the ill?

John Dryden
Heaven be thanked, we live in such an age, When no man dies for love, but on the stage.

John Dryden
Some of our philosophizing divines have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out God.

John Dryden
Pity only on fresh objects stays, but with the tedious sight of woes decays.

John Dryden
Even kings but play; and when their part is done, some other, worse or better, mounts the throne.

John Dryden
Time and death shall depart and say in flying
Love has found out a way to live, by dying.

John Dryden
An hour will come, with pleasure to relate Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.

John Dryden
No Sickness known before, no slow Disease, To soften Grief by Just Degrees.

John Dryden