John Dryden Quotes
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A man so various, that he seem’d to beNot 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 moonWas chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
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Large was his wealth, but larger was his heart.
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He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
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Let old Timotheus yield the prize,Or both divide the crown;He rais’d a mortal to the skies;She drew an angel down.
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Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
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Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
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Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,Or exercise their spite in human woe?
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With ravished earsThe monarch hears;Assumes the god,Affects the nod,And seems to shake the spheres.
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He who would search for pearls must dive below.
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Second thoughts, they say, are best.
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Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yetIn his own worth.
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The soft complaining flute,In dying notes, discoversThe woes of hopeless lovers.
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We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
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He's somewhat lewd; but a well-meaning mind;Weeps much; fights little; but is wond'rous kind.
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And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
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Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.
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But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.
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I have found, by trial, Homer a more pleasing task than Virgil (though I say not the translation will be less laborious); for the Grecian is more according to my genius, than the Latin poet.
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Happy who in his verse can gently steerFrom grave to light, from pleasant to severe.
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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.