John Dryden Quotes
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Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
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Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
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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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Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yetIn his own worth.
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Large was his wealth, but larger was his heart.
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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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Second thoughts, they say, are best.
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He who would search for pearls must dive below.
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And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
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Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,Or exercise their spite in human woe?
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Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
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Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
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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.
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Railing and praising were his usual themes;And both, to show his judgment, in extremes;So over violent, or over civil,That every man with him was God or devil.
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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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What passions cannot music raise or quell?
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He trudged along unknowing what he sought,And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
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Above any Greek or Roman name.
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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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Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne'er pardon who have done wrong.
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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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All delays are dangerous in war.
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Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
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Plots, true or false, are necessary things,To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.