John Dryden Quotes
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Since heaven's eternal year is thine.
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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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Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
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And that one hunting, which the Devil design'dFor one fair female, lost him half the kind.
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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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Second thoughts, they say, are best.
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Plots, true or false, are necessary things,To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.
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Even victors are by victories undone.
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Happy who in his verse can gently steerFrom grave to light, from pleasant to severe.
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And raw in fields the rude militia swarms,Mouths without hands; maintain'd at vast expense,In peace a charge, in war a weak defence;Stout once a month they march, a blustering band,And ever but in times of need at hand.
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Thespis, the first professor of our art,At country wakes sung ballads from a cart.
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Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne'er pardon who have done wrong.
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And doomed to death, though fated not to die.
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Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
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A brave man scorns to quarrel once a day;Like Hectors in at every petty fray.
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Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes careTo grant, before we can conclude the prayer:Preventing angels met it half the way,And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.
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He trudged along unknowing what he sought,And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
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The Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unités, or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.
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All delays are dangerous in war.
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'T is not for nothing that we life pursue;It pays our hopes with something still that's new.
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He who would search for pearls must dive below.
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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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Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yetIn his own worth.
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It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.