John Dryden quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by John Dryden

John Dryden Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from John Dryden on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

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

Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail, Our lion now will foreign foes assail.

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

Accurst ambition, how dearly I have bought you.

If we from wealth to poverty descend,
Want gives to know the flatterer from the friend.

Damn'd neuters, in their middle way of steering, Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.

For danger levels man and brute And all are fellows in their need.

Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.

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

Among our crimes oblivion may be set.

A thing well said will be wit in all languages.

Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.

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

He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.

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

One of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced.

How happy the lover,
How easy his chain,
How pleasing his pain,
How sweet to discover
He sighs not in vain.

Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

He is the very Janus of poets; he wears almost everywhere two faces; and you have scarce begun to admire the one, ere you despise the other.

Death only this mysterious truth unfolds,
The mighty soul how small a body holds.

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

Heroic poetry has ever been esteemed the greatest work of human nature.

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure.

O freedom, first delight of human kind!

To die is landing on some distant shore.

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

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

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

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

Second thoughts, they say, are best.

Ev'n wit's a burthen, when it talks too long.

Pleasure never comes sincere to man; but lent by heaven upon hard usury.

Where'e're I go, my Soul shall stay with thee:
'Tis but my Shadow I take away ...

Ever a glutton, at another's cost, But in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost.

If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.

For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.

Dreams are but interludes that fancy makes ...
Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind
Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.

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

Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.

Deathless laurel is the victor's due.

Politicians neither love nor hate.

She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.

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

Genius must be born, it can't be taught.

When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.

Having mourned your sin, for outward Eden lost, find paradise within.

Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I.

Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.

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

Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.

Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.

Shakespeare was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of the books to read nature; he looked inward, and found her there.

Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,
And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.

He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master

Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.

Keen appetite And quick digestion wait on you and yours.

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

Self-defence is Nature's eldest law.

For you may palm upon us new for old:
All, as they say, that glitters, is not gold.

Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense,
But good men starve for want of impudence.

Satire is a kind of poetry in which human vices are reprehended.

War is the trade of Kings.

These are the effects of doting age,
vain doubts and idle cares and over caution.

I have a soul that like an ample shield Can take in all, and verge enough for more.

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

My love's a noble madness.

For all have not the gift of martyrdom.

Old age creeps on us ere we think it nigh.

The World to Bacon does not only owe it's present knowledge, but its future too.

So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.

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

Successful crimes alone are justified.

Ye moon and stars, bear witness to the truth.

None are so busy as the fool and the knave.

'Tis a good thing to laugh at any rate; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness.

If thou dost still retain the same ill habits, the same follies, too, still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.

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

He wants worth who dares not praise a foe.

For lawful power is still superior found, When long driven back, at length it stands the ground.

Home is the sacred refuge of our life.

Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.

Virgil, above all poets, had a stock which I may call almost inexhaustible, of figurative, elegant, and sounding words.

Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.

Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries, See the Furies arise!

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.

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

He trudged along unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.

Raw in the fields the rude militia swarms, Mouth without hands; maintained at vast expense, In peace a charge, in war a weak defence.

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

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

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.

Interest makes all seem reason that leads to it.

Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.

Night came, but unattended with repose.
Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close.
Alone and black she came; no friendly stars arose.

For my part, I can compare her (a gossip) to nothing but the sun; for, like him, she knows no rest, nor ever sets in one place but to rise in another.

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

Hushed as midnight silence.

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