John Dryden Quotes

The winds are out of breath.

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.

They think too little who talk too much.

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

Blown roses hold their sweetness to the last.

I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night.

Pride - Lord of human kind

He is a perpetual fountain of good sense.

Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.

Sure there is none but fears a future state; And when the most obdurate swear they do not, Their trembling hearts belie their boasting tongues.

Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.

Better one suffer than a nation grieve.

But 'tis the talent of our English nation, Still to be plotting some new reformation.

Chaucer followed Nature everywhere, but was never so bold to go beyond her.

Government itself at length must fall To nature's state, where all have right to all.

Home is the sacred refuge of our life.

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.

One cannot say he wanted wit, but rather that he was frugal of it.

[T]he Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unitez , or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.

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

Mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out of nature, though everything is altered.

So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.

The true Amphitryon is the Amphitryon where we dine.

War is a trade of kings.

But dying is a pleasure / When living is a pain.

Good sense and good nature are never separated; and good nature is the product of right reason.

Inspire the Vocal Brass, Inspire; The World is past its Infant Age: Arms and Honour, Arms and Honour, Set the Martial Mind on Fire, And kindle Manly Rage.

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.

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

Restless at home, and ever prone to range.

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

He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.

Take the good the gods provide thee.

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

To draw true beauty shows a master's hand.

Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.

Fortune, that with malicious joyDoes man her slave oppress,Proud of her office to destroy,Is seldom pleasd to bless.

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!

As poetry is the harmony of words, so music is that of notes.

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

My love's a noble madness.

I am resolved to grow fat, and look young till forty.

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

Reason saw not, till Faith sprung the Light.

The greater part performed achieves the less.

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

She, though in full-blown flower of glorious beauty, Grows cold even in the summer of her age.

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

Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher that they took; Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as they pass'd.

Not Heav'n itself upon the past has pow'r; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.