John Dryden Quotes

Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.

Fortune befriends the bold.

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.

But far more numerous was the herd of such. Who think too little and who talk too much.

She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.

Beware the fury of a patient man.

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

They conquer who believe they can.

Mighty things from small beginnings grow.

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

Genius must be born, and never can be taught.

For they conquer who believe they can.

Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.

Not to ask is not be denied.

Love is love's reward.

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

Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.

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

The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.

Far more numerous are those as such; who think to little and talk to much.

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

Self-defense is Nature's eldest law.

He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.

Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.

Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.

Pains of love be sweeter far than all the other pleasures are.

Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.

War, he sung, is toil and trouble; Honor but an empty bubble.

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

Reason to rule but mercy to forgive: The first is the law, the last prerogative.

Successful crimes alone are justified.

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

Nor is the people's judgement always true;The most may err as grossly as the few.

All heiresses are beautiful.

Since every man who lives is born to die, and none can boast sincere felicity, with equal mind, what happens, let us bear, nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.

Plots, true or false, are necessary things, to raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings.

Time is the most valuable coin in your life.

You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you don't let other people spend it for you.

Nature meant me a wife, a silly harmless household Dove, fond without art; and kind without deceit.

Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

Honor is but an empty bubble.

All objects lose by too familiar a view.

Such subtle Covenants shall be made,Till Peace it self is War in Masquerade.

Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!

Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.

What passions cannot music raise or quell?

Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.

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

Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.

To die is landing on some distant shore.

Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.

There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.