John Dryden Quotes (236 Quotes)

Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn Of polished ivory this, that of transparent horn True visions through transparent horn arise Through polished ivory pass deluding lies.

Where trust is greatest, there treason is in its most horrid shape.

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

Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.

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.

And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.

To see and to be seen, in heaps they run Some to undo, and some to be undone.

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.

Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state.

God never made His work for man to mend.

Parting is worse than death it is death of love.

For, Heaven be thank'd, we live in such an age, when no man dies for love, but on the stage

He is a perpetual fountain of good sense.

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

The sun, when he from noon declines, And with abated heat less fiercely shines seems to grow milder as he goes away.

Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.

Tis well an old age is out, And time to begin a new.

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

And he who servilely creeps after sense, Is safe, but neer will reach an excellence.

To die for faction is a common evil, But to be hanged for nonsense is the Devil.

Whom David's love with honours did adorn,
That from his disobedient son were torn.

Youth, beauty, graceful action seldom fail But common interest always will prevail And pity never ceases to be shown To him who makes the peoples wrongs his own.

Set all things in their own peculiar place, And know that order is the greatest grace.

If by the people you understand the multitude, the hoi polloi, tis no matter what they think they are sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong their judgment is a mere lottery.

War is the trade of Kings.

But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be Within that circle none durst walk but he.

I am devilishly afraid, thats certain but ... Ill sing, that I may seem valiant.

Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd The next, in majesty in both the last. The force of Nature could no further go To make a third, she join'd the former two.

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

By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid, art, makes mighty things from small beginnings grow.

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

I am as free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran.

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

They that possess the prince possess the laws.

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.

Enjoy the present smiling hour. And put it out of Fortune's power.