John Dryden Quotes

Self-defense is Nature's eldest law.

…So when the last and dreadful hour This crumbling pageant shall devour, The trumpet shall be heard on high, The dead shall live, the living die, And Music shall untune the sky

He with a graceful pride, While his rider every hand survey'd, Sprung loose, and flew into an escapade; Not moving forward, yet with every bound Pressing, and seeming still to quit his ground.

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

Thou spring'st a leak already in thy crown, A flaw is in thy ill-bak'd vessel found; 'Tis hollow, and returns a jarring sound, Yet thy moist clay is pliant to command, Unwrought, and easy to the potter's hand: Now take the mould; now bend thy mind to feel The first sharp motions of the forming wheel.

When he spoke, what tender words he used! So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow, They melted as they fell.

Fool that I was, upon my eagle's wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.

They conquer who believe they can.

Dead men tell no tales.

Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

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

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

Fortune befriends the bold.

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

Beware the fury of a patient man.

All, as they say, that glitters is not gold.

She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.

When bounteous autumn rears her head, he joys to pull the ripened pear.

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

I'm a little wounded, but I am not slain;

I will lay me down to bleed a while. Then I'll rise and fight again.

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.

Mighty things from small beginnings grow.

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.

Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.

Fortune confounds the wise, And when they least expect it turns the dice.

Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure,- Sweet is pleasure after pain.

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

Hushed as midnight silence.

He look'd in years, yet in his years were seen A youthful vigor, and autumnal green.

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

Love is a child that talks in broken language, yet then he speaks most plain.

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

Genius must be born, and never can be taught.

And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere Free from corruption, or entire, or clear, Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire In all things which our needful faith require.

The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race.

So the false spider, when her nets are spread, deep ambushed in her silent den does lie.

Ye moon and stars, bear witness to the truth.

You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.

Revealed religion first informed thy sight, and reason saw not till faith sprung to light.

None would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;

And, from the dregs of life, think to receive, What the first sprightly running could not give.

The unhappy man, who once has trail'd a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.

We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search for truth;

it is their common method to take on trust what they help distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity.

For they conquer who believe they can.

Merit challenges envy.

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

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

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

Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught, The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend.

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure.

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections.