John Dryden Quotes

Imitation pleases, because it affords matter for inquiring into the truth or falsehood of imitation, by comparing its likeness or unlikeness with the original.

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.

Virgil is so exact in every word, that none can be changed but for a worse; nor any one removed from its place, but the harmony will be altered. He pretends sometimes to trip; but it is only to make you think him in danger of a fall, when he is most secure.

Discover the opinion of your enemies, which is commonly the truest; for they will give you no quarter, and allow nothing to complaisance.

With how much ease believe we what we wish!

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.

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

Take the goods the gods provide thee.

The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind's great bribe.

No government has ever been, or can ever be, wherein time-servers and blockheads will not be uppermost.

Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.

Successful crimes alone are justified.

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.

War is a trade of kings.

They say everything in the world is good for something.

Mere poets are sottish as mere drunkards are, who live in a continual mist, without seeing or judging anything clearly. A man should be learned in several sciences, and should have a reasonable, philosophical and in some measure a mathematical head, to be a complete and excellent poet.

Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

Long pains, with use of bearing, are half eased.

Griefs assured are felt before they come.

For mysterious things of faith, rely on the proponent, Heaven's authority.

A good conscience is a port which is landlocked on every side, where no winds can possibly invade. There a man may not only see his own image, but that of his Maker, clearly reflected from the undisturbed waters.

Who thinks all Science, as all Virtue, vain; Who counts Geometry and numbers Toys ...

Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.

A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.

For granting we have sinned, and that the offence
Of man is made against Omnipotence,
Some price that bears proportion must be paid,
And infinite with infinite be weighed.

Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.

Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son.

All empire is no more than power in trust.

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.

He wants worth who dares not praise a foe.

For whatsoe'er their sufferings were before,
That change they covet makes them suffer more.
All other errors but disturb a state;
But innovation is the blow of fate.

To so perverse a sex all grace is vain.

Sculptors are obliged to follow the manners of the painters, and to make many ample folds, which are unsufferable hardness, and more like a rock than a natural garment.

Prodigious actions may as well be done, by weaver's issue, as the prince's son.

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.

Interest makes all seem reason that leads to it.

Dim as the borrowed beams of moons and stars
To lonely, weary, wandering travelers,
Is Reason to the soul; and, as on high
Those rolling fires discover but the sky,
Not light us here, so Reason's glimmering ray
Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way,
But guide us upward to a better day.

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.

You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.

Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.

Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.

I feel my sinews slackened with the fright, and a cold sweat trills down all over my limbs, as if I were dissolving into water.

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!

With odorous oil thy head and hair are sleek; And then thou kemb'st the tuzzes on thy cheek: Of these, my barbers take a costly care.

We first make our habits, then our habits make us.

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.

Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.

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.

Death ends our woes, and the kind grave shuts up the mournful scene.

It is sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty.

But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.

The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience, not in enterprises which the poets call heroic, and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride and worldly honor.

Reason saw not, till Faith sprung the Light.

Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.

Joy rul'd the day, and Love the night.

It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.

A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.

Repentance is the virtue of weak minds.

Great souls forgive not injuries till time has put their enemies within their power, that they may show forgiveness is their own.

The midwife laid her hand on his thick skull,
With this prophetic blessing - Be thou dull; 60
Drink, swear, and roar, forbear no lewd delight
Fit for thy bulk, do anything but write.
Thou art of lasting make, like thoughtless men,
A strong nativity - but for the pen;
Eat opium, mingle arsenic in thy drink, 65
Still thou mayest live, avoiding pen and ink.
I see, I see, 'tis counsel given in vain,
For treason, botched in rhyme, will be thy bane;
Rhyme is the rock on which thou art to wreck,
'Tis fatal to thy fame and to thy neck.

Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.

Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.

He who trusts a secret to his servant makes his own man his master.

Like pilgrims to th' appointed place we tend;
The World's an Inn, and Death the journey's end.

Parting is worse than death; it is death of love!

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

Be secret and discreet; the fairy favors are lost when not concealed.

A thing well said will be wit in all languages.

A lively faith will bear aloft the mind, and leave the luggage of good works behind.

Thus like a Captive in an Isle confin'd,
Man walks at large, a Pris'ner of the Mind

It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for the Latin (a most severe and compendious language) often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more ... But since every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words; it is enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.

Revealed religion first informed thy sight, and reason saw not till faith sprung to light.

Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.

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.

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

For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?

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

Lucky men are favorites of Heaven.

And love's the noblest frailty of the mind.

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

How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! Tosparethegrossness ofthenames, and to dothe thing yet moreseverely, isto drawa full face, and tomake the nose and cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of shadowing.

Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.

And plenty makes us poor.

Repentance is but want of power to sin.

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

A brave man scorns to quarrel once a day; Like Hectors in at every petty fray.

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

Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer: Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.

Fortune confounds the wise,
And when they least expect it turns the dice.

The perverseness of my fate is such that he's not mine because he's mine too much.

That gloomy outside, like a rusty chest, contains the shoring treasure of a soul resolved and brave.

Satire among the Romans, but not among the Greeks, was a bitter invective poem.

Fortune's unjust; she ruins oft the brave, and him who should be victor, makes the slave.

My right eye itches, some good luck is near.

He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit.

The elephant is never won by anger; nor must that man who would reclaim a lion take him by the teeth.

Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.

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

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

Those who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write,
Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.