John Dryden Quotes

Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.

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.

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.

Dead men tell no tales.

For they can conquer who believe they can.

Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

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

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

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

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

Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.

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

Confidence is the feeling we have before knowing all the facts

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

He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master

But love's a malady without a cure.

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.

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

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

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

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

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

Hushed as midnight silence.

A good conscience is a port which is landlocked on every side, where no winds can possibly invade. There a man may not only see his own image, but that of his Maker, clearly reflected from the undisturbed waters.

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.

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

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

He trudged along unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.

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.

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

For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen.

Ye moon and stars, bear witness to the truth.

The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race.

With odorous oil thy head and hair are sleek; And then thou kemb'st the tuzzes on thy cheek: Of these, my barbers take a costly care.

When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit; Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay. Tomorrow's falser than the former day.

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

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

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.

And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd For one fair female, lost him half the kind.

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.

Beware the fury of a patient man.

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.

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

Merit challenges envy.

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

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.