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John Dryden Quotes
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John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668.He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romanticist writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John". Wikipedia  

✵ 9. August 1631 – 1. May 1700
John Dryden photo
John Dryden: 196   quotes 21   likes

John Dryden Quotes

“Made still a blund'ring kind of melody;
Spurred boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.
Free from all meaning, whether good or bad,
And in one word, heroically mad.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. II, line 413.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Sense , Madness

“Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I line 268.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

“Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
There thou mayst wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.”

John Dryden

Source: Mac Flecknoe (1682), l. 205–208.

Peace , Way

“The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes
And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 107.

Stupidity , Fools , Nature

“The wretched have no friends.”

John Dryden All for Love

Act III, scene I
All for Love (1678)

“Your case no tame expedients will afford,
Resolve on death or conquest by the sword,
Which for no less a stake than life you draw,
And self-defence is Nature's eldest law.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I, lines 455–458.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Life , Death , Law , Nature

“Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I, line 967.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Fools

“Railing in other men may be a crime,
But ought to pass for mere instinct in him:
Instinct he follows and no further knows,
For to write verse with him is to transpose.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. II, line 440.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Men

“What precious drops are those
Which silently each other's track pursue,
Bright as young diamonds in their infant dew?”

John Dryden The Conquest of Granada

Part 2, Act III, scene i.
The Conquest of Granada (1669-1670)

“Since heaven's eternal year is thine.”

John Dryden

To the Pious Memory of Mrs. Anne Killegrew (1686), line 15.

“Possess your soul with patience.”

John Dryden book The Hind and the Panther

Pt. III, line 839.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

Soul , Patience

“The true Amphitryon is the Amphitryon where we dine.”

John Dryden Amphitryon

Amphitryon (1690), Act IV scene i.

“Better one suffer, than a nation grieve.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I line 416.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Suffering

“Whate’er he did was done with so much ease,
In him alone 't was natural to please.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I line 27-28.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Nature

“Truth is the foundation of all knowledge, and the cement of all societies.”

John Dryden

The Character of Polybius (1692)

Truth , Knowledge

“For present joys are more to flesh and blood
Than a dull prospect of a distant good.”

John Dryden book The Hind and the Panther

Pt. III, lines 364–365.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

Distant , Joy

“Happy who in his verse can gently steer
From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.”

John Dryden

The Art of Poetry, canto i, line 75.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Light , Happiness

“With ravished ears
The monarch hears;
Assumes the god,
Affects the nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.”

John Dryden

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 37–41.

God

“The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies.”

John Dryden

Aeneis, Book VI, lines 192–195.
The Works of Virgil (1697)

Way , Hell , Night

“Fame then was cheap, and the first comer sped;
And they have kept it since by being dead.”

John Dryden The Conquest of Granada

Epilogue.
The Conquest of Granada (1669-1670)

Dead

“Genius must be born, and never can be taught.”

John Dryden

Epistle to Congreve (1693), line 60.

“The soft complaining flute,
In dying notes, discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers.”

John Dryden

St. 4.
A Song for St. Cecilia's Day http://www.englishverse.com/poems/a_song_for_st_cecilias_day_1687 (1687)

Lovers

“Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure;
Rich the treasure;
Sweet the pleasure;
Sweet is pleasure after pain.”

John Dryden

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 57–60.

Pain , Pleasure , Drink

“Auspicious Prince! at whose nativity
Some royal planet rul'd the southern sky;
Thy longing country's darling and desire;
Their cloudy pillar, and their guardian fire:
Their second Moses, whose extended wand
Divides the seas, and shows the promis'd land:
Whose dawning day, in very distant age,
Has exercis'd the sacred prophet's rage:
The people's pray'r, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I, lines 230–239.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Men , People , Age , Dreams

“Than a successive title long and dark,
Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark.”

John Dryden book The Hind and the Panther

Pt 1, line 301.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

Success

“Here lies my wife:here let her lie!
Now she's at rest, and so am I.”

John Dryden

Epitaph, intended for his wife

Lie

“All have not the gift of martyrdom.”

John Dryden book The Hind and the Panther

Pt. II, line 59.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

“[T]he 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.”

John Dryden

Essay of Dramatick Poesie (1668) Full text online http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/drampoet.html.

Time

“Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.”

John Dryden

To the Pious Memory of Mrs. Anne Killegrew (1686), line 70.

“All things are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead,
The Mountains seem to nod their drowsy head;
The little Birds in dreams their Songs repeat,
And sleeping Flowers, beneath the night-dew sweat;
Even Lust and Envy sleep.”

John Dryden

The Indian Emperor (1667), Act III, scene ii.

Dreams , Mountain , Flowers , Nature

“If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in some sort parties; for, since they say the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure that they will be impartial judges?”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Preface to the Fables.
Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)

Men

“When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 41.

Love , Beauty

“Twas now the month in which the world began
(If March beheld the first created man):
And since the vernal equinox, the Sun,
In Aries, twelve degrees, or more, had run;
When casting up his eyes against the light,
Both month, and day, and hour, he measur'd right;
And told more truly than th' Ephemeris:
For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.
Thus numbering times and seasons in his breast,
His second crowing the third hour confess'd.”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

The Cock and the Fox line 445 - 457.
Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)

World , Art , Nature , Light

“My next desire is, void of care and strife,
To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life:
A country cottage near a crystal flood,
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.”

John Dryden

Georgic II, lines 688–691.
The Works of Virgil (1697)

Life , Country

“All human things are subject to decay,
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.”

John Dryden

Source: Mac Flecknoe (1682), l. 1–2.

Fate

“Sound the trumpets; beat the drums…
Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes.”

John Dryden

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 50–51.

“A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Preface to the Fables.
Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)

“Nay, tho' our Atoms shou'd revolve by chance,
And matter leape into the former dance;
Tho' time our Life and motion cou'd restore,
And make our Bodies what they were before,
What gain to us wou'd all this bustle bring,
The new made man wou'd be another thing;
When once an interrupting pause is made,
That individual Being is decay'd.
We, who are dead and gone, shall bear no part
In all the pleasures, nor shall feel the smart,
Which to that other Mortal shall accrew,
Whom of our Matter Time shall mould anew.”

John Dryden

Sylvae (London, 1685), Translation of the Latter Part of the Third Book of Lucretius, "Against the Fear of Death", pp. 61–62.

Life , Pleasure , Feeling , Chance

“The Wild Gallant, act ii. scene. 1.”

John Dryden

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Chaucer followed Nature everywhere, but was never so bold to go beyond her.”

John Dryden book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Preface to the Fables.
Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700)

Nature

“As long as words a different sense will bear,
And each may be his own interpreter,
Our airy faith will no foundation find;
The word's a weathercock for every wind.”

John Dryden book The Hind and the Panther

Pt. I, lines 462–465.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

Faith , Sense

“T is not for nothing that we life pursue;
It pays our hopes with something still that's new.”

John Dryden Aureng-zebe

Aureng-Zebe (1676), Act IV, scene i.

Life , Hope

“Like a led victim, to my death I'll go,
And, dying, bless the hand that gave the blow.”

John Dryden

Act II, scene 1.
The Spanish Friar (1681)

Death

“And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd
For one fair female, lost him half the kind.”

John Dryden

Theodore and Honoria, line 227.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Thus in a pageant-show a plot is made;
And peace itself is war in masquerade.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I, lines 750–751.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

War , Peace

“[Music] is inarticulate poesy.”

John Dryden Tyrannick Love

Tyrannick Love (1669), Preface

Music