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John Dryden Quotes - Page 7

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

Desire of greatness is a godlike sin.

Desire of greatness is a godlike sin.

Greatness, Desire, Sin

John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.232

But love's a malady without a cure.

Love, Literature, Cures

'Palamon and Arcite' (1700) bk. 2, l. 110

Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.

Kings, Fighting, Empires

A narrow mind begets obstinacy; we do not easily believe what we cannot see.

Believe, Mind, Obstinacy

More liberty begets desire of more; The hunger still increases with the store

Desire, Liberty, Hunger

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

The conscience of a people is their power.

People, Conscience

John Dryden (1993). “The Works of John Dryden, Volume XIV: Plays; The Kind Keeper, The Spanish Fryar, The Duke of Guise, and The Vindication”, p.218, Univ of California Press

I never saw any good that came of telling truth.

Truth, Saws, Telling The Truth

William Shakespeare, Mr. John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell (1750). “A Select Collection of the Best Modern English Plays”

So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.

Life, Dream, Heaven

John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author”, p.136

Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.

Happiness, Men, Anxious Thoughts

There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.

Asking, Proud, Pay

John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.3874, Delphi Classics

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

Curiosity, Behind The Scenes, Counterfeit

War seldom enters but where wealth allures.

War, Wealth, Allure

John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.253

Every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies.

Age, Genius, Study

'An Essay of Dramatic Poesy' (1668)

Politicians neither love nor hate.

Love, Hate, Love Hate

1681 Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.223.

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.

Art, Nature, Missing

John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.194

Treason is greatest where trust is greatest.

Trust, Treason

Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.

Change, Time, Children

All for Love act 4, sc. 1 (1678)

Repartee is the soul of conversation.

Soul, Conversation, Repartee

Let those find fault whose wit's so very small, They've need to show that they can think at all; Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below. Fops may have leave to level all they can; As pigmies would be glad to lop a man. Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light, We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.

Men, Thinking, Errors

John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.433

It is a madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because in herself she is nothing, can rule nothing, but is ruled by prudence.

Mistress, Events, Madness

"The works of John Dryden: now first collected in eighteen volumes. Illustrated with notes, historical, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author".

I am resolved to grow fat and look young till forty, and then slip out of the world with the first wrinkle and the reputation of five-and-twenty.

Women, Wrinkles, Twenties

'The Maiden Queen' (1668) act 3, sc. 1

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.

Prayer, Angel, Heaven

John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.287

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

Revenge, Writing, Spite

John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.409

Secret guilt is by silence revealed.

Silence, Secret, Guilt

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

Government, Server, Blockheads

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