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John Dryden
470 quotes
“Leave to fathom such high points as these, Nor be ambitious, ere the time, to please; Unseasonably wise, till age and cares Have form’d thy soul to manage great affairs.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dare to be great without a guilty crown; View it, and lay the bright temptation down: ’Tis base to seize on all.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Were virtue by descent, a noble name Could never villanize his father’s fame; But, as the first, the last of all the line Would, like the sun, ev’n in descending, shine.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vain are their hopes who fancy to inherit, By trees of pedigree, or fame or merit; Though plodding heralds through each branch may trace Old captains and dictators of their race.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Long galleries of ancestors Challenge nor wonder or esteem from me: "Virtue alone is true nobility.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do then as your progenitors have done, And by their virtues prove yourself their son.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus, born alike, from virtue first began The diffrence that distinguish’d man from man: He claim’d no title from descent of blood; But that which made him noble, made him good.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What have I lost by my forefathers’ fault! Why was I not the twentieth by descent From a long restive race of droning kings?”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Please thy pride, and search the herald’s roll, Where thou shalt find thy famous pedigree, Drawn from the root of some old Tuscan tree, And thou, a thousand off, a fool of long degree.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For if the sire be faint, or out of case, He will be copied in his famish’d race.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So bright a splendour, so divine a grace, The glorious Daphnis casts on his illustrious race.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Auspicious chief! thy race, in times to come, Shall spread the conquests of imperial Rome.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From a mean stock the pious Decii came; Yet such their virtues, that their loss alone For Rome and all our regions did atone.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obscure! why prythee what am I? I know My father, grandsire, and great grandsire too: If farther I derive my pedigree, I can but guess beyond the fourth degree. The rest of my forgotten ancestors Were sons of earth.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we behold an angel, not to fear, Is to be impudent.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That we may angels seem, we paint them elves, And are but satires to set up ourselves.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I saw th’ angelic guards from earth ascend, Grieved they must now no longer man attend; The beams about their temples dimly shone; One would have thought the crime had been their own.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When he knew his rival freed and gone, He swells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan: He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground, The hollow tow’r with clamours rings around.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I beg the grace You would lay by those terrors of your face; Till calmness to your eyes you first restore, I am afraid, and I can beg no more.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If on your head my fury does not turn, Thank that fond dotage which so much you scorn.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He, like a patient angler, ere he strook, Would let them play awhile upon the hook.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Casting nets were spread in shallow brooks, Drags in the deep, and baits were hung on hooks.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perpetual anguish fills his anxious breast, Not stopt by business, nor composed by rest; No music cheers him, nor no feast can please.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some on antiquated authors pore; Rummage for sense.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then thus a senior of the place replies, Well read, and curious of antiquities.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His pensive cheek upon his hand reclined, And anxious thoughts revolving in his mind.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let this and every other anxious thought At th’ entrance of my threshold be forgot.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Firm Doric pillars found the solid base, The fair Corinthian crown the higher space, And all below is strength, and all above is grace.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His son builds on, and never is content Till the last farthing is in structure spent.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Grant her, besides, of noble blood that ran In ancient veins, ere heraldry began.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole division that to Mars pertains, All trades of death that deal in steel for gains, Were there; the butcher, armorer, and smith, Who forges sharpen’d fauchions, or the scythe.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature’s part, Obey the rules and discipline of art.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The soldier then in Grecian arts unskill’d, Returning rich with plunder from the field, If cups of silver or of gold he brought With jewels set, and exquisitely wrought, To glorious trappings strait the plate he turn’d, And with the glitt’ring spoil his horse adorn’d.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What wonder if the kindly beams he shed, Revived the drooping arts again; If science raised her head, And soft humanity, that from rebellion fled.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All arts and artists Theseus could command, Who sold for hire, or wrought for better fame.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He, full of fraudful arts, This well-invented tale for truth imparts.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Live then, thou great encourager of arts! Live ever in our thankful hearts.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unskill’d in schemes by planets to foreshow, I neither will nor can prognosticate To the young gaping heir his father’s fate.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The spiteful stars have shed their venom down, And now the peaceful planets take their turn.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, They threaten every fortune mixt with mine.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sorceries to raise th’ infernal pow’rs, And sigils framed in planetary hours.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Would I had been disposer of thy stars, Thou shouldst have had thy wish, and died in wars.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If but a mile she travel out of town, The planetary hour must first be known, And lucky moment, if her eye but akes, Or itches, its decumbiture she takes.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And much more honest to be hired, and stand With auctionary hammer in thy hand; Provoking to give more, and knocking thrice For the old household stuff, or picture’s price.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Noble Boyle, not less in nature seen Than his great brother read in states and men.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In easy dialogues is Fletcher’s praise: He moved the mind, but had not pow’r to raise.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When did his muse from Fletcher scenes purloin, As thou whose Eth’ ridge dost transfuse to thine? But so transfused as oil and waters flow: His always floats above, thine sinks below.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ganfride, who couldst so well in rhyme complain The death of Richard, with an arrow slain.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Homer, whose name shall live in epic song, While music numbers, or while verse has feet.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source