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John Dryden
470 quotes
“As thy strutting bags with money rise, The love of gain is of an equal size.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From hence the greatest part of ills descend, When lust of getting more will have no end.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the base miser starves amidst his store, Broods o’er his gold, and, griping still at more, Sits sadly pining, and believes he’s poor.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our swords so wholly did the fates employ, That they, at length, grew weary to destroy; Refused the work we brought, and out of breath, Made sorrow and despair attend for death.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I fought and fell like one, but death deceived me: I wanted weight of feeble Moors upon me, To crush my soul out.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here Pallas urges on, and Lausus there; Their congress in the field great Jove withstands: Both doom’d to fall, but fall by greater hands.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why asks he what avails him not in fight, And would but cumber and retard his flight, In which his only excellence is placed? You give him death that interrupt his haste.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They follow their undaunted king; Crowd through their gates; and, in the fields of light, The shocking squadrons meet in mortal fight.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two battles your auspicious cause has won; Thy sword can perfect what it has begun.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A cloud of smoke envelops either host, And all at once the combatants are lost: Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen, Coursers with coursers justing, mén with men.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball, And now their odours arm’d against them fly: Some preciously by shatter’d porcelain fall, And some by aromatic splinters die.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Their standard, planted on the battlement, Despair and death among the soldiers sent.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He to the town return’d, Attended by the chiefs who fought the field, Now friendly mix’d, and in one troop compell’d.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus fights Ulysses, thus his fame extends; A formidable man, but to his friends.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Grecians rally, and their powers unite; With fury charge us, and renew the fight.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Would you the advantage of the fight delay If, striking first, you were to win the day?”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He with his sword unsheathed, on pain of life, Commands both combatants to cease their strife.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How easie is it to call Rogue and Villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a Man appear a Fool, a Blockhead, or a Knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! To spare the grossness of the Names, and to do the thing yet more severely, is to draw a full Face, and to make the Nose and Cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of Shadowing. This is the Mystery of that Noble Trade, which yet no Master can teach to his Apprentice: He may give the Rules, but the Scholar is never the nearer in his practice. Neither is it true, that this fineness of Raillery is offensive. A witty Man is tickl'd while he is hurt in this manner, and a Fool feels it not. The occasion of an Offence may possibly be given, but he cannot take it. If it be granted that in effect this way does more Mischief; that a Man is secretly wounded, and though he be not sensible himself, yet the malicious World will find it for him: yet there is still a vast difference betwixt the slovenly Butchering of a Man, and the fineness of a stroke that separates the Head from the Body, and leaves it standing in its place.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) first seen 1693 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire (1693)
“To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there. I cannot say he is every where alike; were he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of Mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his Comick wit degenerating into clenches; his serious swelling into Bombast. But he is alwayes great, when some great occasion is presented to him: no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of the Poets,”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone 't was natural to please.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pygmy-body to decay, And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay. A daring pilot in extremity; Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And all to leave what with his toil he won To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And heaven had wanted one immortal song.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Behold him setting in his western skies, The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Than a successive title long and dark, Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Who think too little, and who talk too much.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A man so various, that he seem'd to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“So over violent, or over civil, That every man with him was God or Devil.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Made still a blund'ring kind of melody; Spurr'd boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin, Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“For every inch that is not fool is rogue.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher that they took; Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as they pass'd.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“For truth has such a face and such a mien, As to be lov'd needs only to be seen.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“But Shadwell never deviates into sense.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“O gracious God! how far have we Profan'd thy heavenly gift of poesy!”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd; The next, in majesty; in both the last. The force of Nature could no further go; To make a third, she join'd the former two.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“None but the brave deserves the fair.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“With ravish'd ears The monarch hears; Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure,-- Sweet is pleasure after pain.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, Fallen from his high estate, And welt'ring in his blood; Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed, On the bare earth expos'd he lies, With not a friend to close his eyes.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, Soon he sooth'd his soul to pleasures. War, he sung, is toil and trouble; Honour but an empty bubble; Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying. If all the world be worth the winning, Think, oh think it worth enjoying: Lovely Thais sits beside thee, Take the good the gods provide thee.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“He rais'd a mortal to the skies, She drew an angel down.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A very merry, dancing, drinking, Laughing, quaffing, and unthinking time.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source