John Dryden Quotes

344 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John Dryden
Forgiveness to the injured does belong;
But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.

John Dryden
All, all of a piece throughout:
Thy chase had a beast in view;
Thy wars brought nothing about;
Thy lovers were all untrue.
'Tis well an old age is out,
And time to begin a new.

John Dryden
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art:
Nothing went unrewarded, but desert.
Beggared by fools, whom still he found too late:
He had his jest, and they had his estate.

John Dryden
Made still a blund'ring kind of melody;
Spurred boldly on, and dashed 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
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.

John Dryden
Happy who in his verse can gently steer
From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.

John Dryden
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees —
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

John Dryden
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.

John Dryden
She fear'd no danger, for she knew no sin.

John Dryden
What precious drops are those
Which silently each other's track pursue,
Bright as young diamonds in their infant dew?

John Dryden
The Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unités, or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.

John Dryden
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
There thou mayst wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.

John Dryden
Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long —
Even wondered at, because he dropped no sooner.
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years,
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more;
Till like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.

John Dryden
Freedom which in no other land will thrive,
Freedom an English subject's sole prerogative.

John Dryden
An horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.

John Dryden
Since ev'ry man who lives is born to die,
And none can boast sincere felicity,
With equal mind, what happens, let us bear,
Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
Like pilgrims, to th' appointed place we tend;
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.

John Dryden