Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

John Dryden Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes Age Anger Art Beauty Bravery Character Children Confidence Conscience Country Crime Criticism Death Democracy Design Desire Devil Dying Evil Faith Fame Fate Fear Fighting Forgiveness Freedom Genius Giving Goodness Grace Guilt Happiness Harmony Heart Heaven Home Honor Imagination Imitation Inspirational Journey Joy Judging Judgment Language Learning Liberty Life Literature Love Lying Madness Mankind Music Nature Pain Painting Passion Past Peace Perfection Pleasure Poetry Poverty Power Praise Pride Rage Revenge Running Satire Science Silence Sin Son Sorrow Soul Study Suffering Time Today Trade Truth Understanding Virtue War Water Wife Wit Writing Youth

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

Love, Fate, Choices

John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.413, Delphi Classics

Good sense and good-nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good-nature, by which I mean beneficence and candor, is the product of right reason.

Mean, Ignorant, World

John Dryden (1750). “Select essays on the belles lettres”, p.95

Doeg, though without knowing how or why, Made still a blundering kind of melody; Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd 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.

Knowing, Mad, Poetry

John Dryden (1873). “Poetical Works: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.69

Swift was the race, but short the time to run.

Running, Time, Race

1681 Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.837.

Virgil and Horace [were] the severest writers of the severest age.

Age

1677 'The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry and Heroic Licence', an essay prefacing State of Innocence, a libretto based on Paradise Lost.

Thou tyrant, tyrant Jealousy, Thou tyrant of the mind!

Tyrants, Mind

'Love Triumphant' (1694) act 3, sc. 1 'Song of Jealousy'

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

Evil, May, Valiant

John Dryden (1976). “The Works of John Dryden, Volume XV: Plays: Albion and Albanius, Don Sebastian, Amphitryon”, p.248, Univ of California Press

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

Generosity, Secret, Mind

John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes”, p.429

What I have left is from my native spring; I've still a heart that swells, in scorn of fate, And lifts me to my banks.

Spring, Heart, Fate

1678 All for Love, or The World Well Lost, act 3.

There is a proud modesty in merit.

Proud, Merit, Modesty

John Dryden, C. B., Esquire Charles BATHURST (1852). “Selections from the poetry of Dryden, including his plays and translations. [The editor's preface signed: C. B., i.e. Charles Bathurst.]”, p.129

He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master

Trust, Confidence, Keeping Secrets

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

Life, Sweet, Pain

John Dryden (1762). “The Dramatick Works of John Dryden, Esq: In Six Volumes”, p.372

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

Freedom, Land, Sole

'Threnodia Augustalis' (1685) st. 10

Merit challenges envy.

Envy, Challenges, Merit

Time glides with undiscover'd haste; The future but a length behind the past.

Past, Haste, Length

John Dryden (2002). “The Works of John Dryden, Volume VII: Poems, 1697-1700”, p.258, Univ of California Press

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

Revenge, Cry, Arise

John Dryden, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (2007). “Dryden: Selected Poems”, p.595, Pearson Education

For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.

Fate, Design, Mind

John Dryden, John Mitford (1847). “The Works of John Dryden in Verse and Prose”, p.108

Possess your soul with patience.

Patience, Soul, Your Soul

John Dryden, Samuel Johnson (1822). “The Poems of John Dryden”

All empire is no more than power in trust.

Power, Empires

'Absalom and Achitophel' (1681) pt. 1, l. 411

And write whatever Time shall bring to pass With pens of adamant on plates of brass.

Time, Writing, Brass

John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.77

All flowers will droop in the absence of the sun that waked their sweets.

Sweet, Flower, Sun

Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair.

Bravery, Pairs, Fairs

Alexander's Feast l. 7 (1697)

We can never be grieved for their miseries who are thoroughly wicked, and have thereby justly called their calamities on themselves.

Wicked, Wickedness, Misery

Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Dryden, Alexander Pope (1783). “The art of painting of Charles Alphonse Du Fresnoy”, p.153

Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie than the will can choose an apparent evil.

Truth, Lying, Evil

John Dryden (1750). “Select Essays on the Belles Lettres”, p.314

Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.

Blind, Zeal, Conductor

John Dryden, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (2007). “Dryden: Selected Poems”, p.479, Pearson Education

You May Also Like: