John Dryden Quotes

Beware the fury of a patient man.

- John Dryden

The first is the law, the last prerogative.

- John Dryden

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

- John Dryden

Even victors are by victories undone.

- John Dryden

Seek not to know what must not be reveal, for joy only flows where fate is most concealed. A busy person would find their sorrows much more; if future fortunes were known before!

- John Dryden

Self-defence is Nature's eldest law.

- John Dryden

And love's the noblest frailty of the mind.

- John Dryden

Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.

- John Dryden

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.

- John Dryden

Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.

- John Dryden

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.

- John Dryden

Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son.

- John Dryden

What passions cannot music raise or quell?

- John Dryden

By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.

- John Dryden

All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.

- John Dryden

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.

- John Dryden

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

- John Dryden

Love is love's reward.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne'er pardon who have done wrong.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

God never made His work for man to mend.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

If you be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

Successful crimes alone are justified.

- John Dryden

They that possess the prince possess the laws.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

- John Dryden

Repentance is but want of power to sin.

- John Dryden

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

- John Dryden

To die is landing on some distant shore.

- John Dryden

All objects lose by too familiar a view.

- John Dryden

War is the trade of Kings.

- John Dryden

Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.

- John Dryden

Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

But love's a malady without a cure.

- John Dryden

Words are but pictures of our thoughts.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

Genius must be born, and never can be taught.

- John Dryden

Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

- John Dryden

Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.

- John Dryden

Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

Honor is but an empty bubble.

- John Dryden

And plenty makes us poor.

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

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

- John Dryden

For they conquer who believe they can.

- John Dryden

Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.

- John Dryden