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John Dryden
470 quotes
“Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn: The first in majesty of thought surpass’d, The next in gracefulness; in both the last. The force of nature could no further go: To make a third she join’d the other two.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Horace, with sly insinuating grace, Laugh’d at his friend, and look’d him in the face; Would raise a blush where secret vice he found, And tickle while he gently probed the wound; With seeming innocence the crowd beguiled, But made the desperate passes when he smiled.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame By arrogating Jonson’s hostile name; Let father Flecknoe fire thy mind with praise, And uncle Ogleby thy envy raise.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your Ben and Fletcher, in their first young flight, Did no Volpone, nor no Arbaces write; But hopp’d about, and short excursions made From bough to bough, as if they were afraid.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lucan, content with praise, may lie at ease In costly grots and marble palaces; But to poor Bassus what avails a name, To starve on compliments and empty fame?”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Orestes’ bulky rage, Unsatisfied with margins closely writ, Foams o’er the covers, and not finish’d yet.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Next Petrarch follow’d, and in him we see What rhyme, improved in all its height, can be; At best a pleasing sound, and sweet barbarity.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Saint Andre’s feet ne’er kept more equal time, Not ev’n the feet of thy own Psyche’s rhyme; Though they in numbers as in sense excel, So just, so like tautology, they fell.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shadwell alone of all my sons is he Who stands confirm’d in full stupidity.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, But Shadwell never deviates into sense.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some beams of wit on other souls may fall, Strike through, and make a lucid interval; But Shadwell’s genuine night admits no ray, His rising fogs prevail upon the day.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anger would indite Such woful stuff as I or Shadwell write.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shadwell till death true dulness would maintain; And, in his father’s right and realm’s defence, Ne’er would have peace with wit, nor truce with sense.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But Shakspeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The vain endurances of life, And they who most perform’d, and promised less, Ev’n Short and Hobbes, forsook th’ unequal strife.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoe’er thou art, whose forward ears are bent On state affairs, to guide the government; Hear first what Socrates of old has said To the loved youth whom he at Athens bred.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Exalted Socrates! divinely brave! Injured he fell, and dying he forgave; Too noble for revenge.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That good man, who drank the pois’nous draught With mind serene, and could not wish to see His vile accuser drink as deep as he.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All authors to their own defects are blind; Hadst thou but, Janus-like, a face behind, To see the people, what splay mouths they make, To mark their fingers pointed at thy back.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The unhappy man who once has trail’d a pen Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging with his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such is the poet’s lot: what happier fate Does on the works of grave historians wait! More time they spend, in-greater toils engage: Their volumes swell beyond the thousandth page.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I by chance succeed In what I write, and that’s a chance indeed, Know I am not so stupid, or so hard, Not to feel praise, or fame’s deserved reward.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You exclaim as loud as those that praise, For scraps and coach-hire, a young noble’s plays.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is it for this they study? to grow pale, And miss the pleasures of a glorious meal? For this, in rags accoutred are they seen, And made the May-game of the public spleen?”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bard that first adorn’d our native tongue Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Th’ illiterate writer, empiric-like, applies To minds diseased unsafe chance remedies: The learn’d in schools, where knowledge first began, Studies with care th’ anatomy of man; Sees virtue, vice, and passions in their cause, And fame from science, not from fortune, draws.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was too warm on picking work to dwell, But faggoted his notions as they fell; And if they rhymed and rattled, all was well.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The hand and head were never lost of those Who dealt in dogg’rel, or who punn’d in prose.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No more accuse thy pen, but charge the crime On native sloth, and negligence of time.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His knowledge in the noblest useful arts Was such dead authors could not give, But habitudes with those who live.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever truths Redeem’d from error, or from ignorance, Thin in their authors, like rich veins of ore, Your works unite, and still discover more.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must disclaim whate’er he can express; His grovelling sense will show my passion less.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gentle or sharp, according to thy choice, To laugh at follies, or to lash at vice.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Tis not indeed my talent to engage In lofty trifles, or to swell my page With wind and noise.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet still thy fools shall stand in thy defence, And justify their author’s want of sense.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thy name, to Phoebus and the muses known, Shall in the front of ev’ry page be shown.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every scribbling man Grows a fop as fast as e’er he can, Prunes up, and asks his oracle the glass If pink or purple best become his face?”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When bounteous Autumn rears his head, He joys to pull the ripen’d pear.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Autumnal heat declines, Ere heat is quite decay’d, or cold begun.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Autumn succeeds, a sober, tepid age, Nor froze with fear, nor boiling into rage; Last, Winter creeps along with tardy pace, Sour is his front, and furrow’d is his face.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Up, up, says Avarice! thou snor’st again, Stretchest thy limbs, and yawn’st, but all in vain: The tyrant Lucre no denial takes; At his command th’ unwilling sluggard wakes.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Her soul abhorring avarice, Bounteous; but almost bounteous to a vice.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But more have been by avarice opprest, And heaps of money crowded in the chest.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young men to imitate all ills are prone, But are compell'd to avarice alone; For then in virtue's shape they follow vice.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nor love his peace of mind destroys, Nor wicked avarice of wealth.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Go, miser! go: for lucre sell thy soul; Truck wares for wares, and trudge from pole to pole, That men may say, when thou art dead and gone, See what a vast estate he left his son!”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For he who covets gain in such excess Does by dumb signs himself as much express As if in words at length he show’d his mind.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The base wretch who hoards up all he can Is praised and call’d a careful thrifty man.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For should you to extortion be inclined, Your cruel guilt will little booty find.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like a miser ’midst his store, Who grasps and grasps till he can hold no more.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source