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
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John Dryden: 196   quotes 21   likes

John Dryden Quotes

“Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain;
Fought all his battles o'er again;
And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.”

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 66–70.

“A Heroick Poem, truly such, is undoubtedly the greatest Work which the Soul of Man is capable to perform.”

The Works of Virgil translated into English verse by Mr. Dryden, Volume II (London, 1709), "Dedication", p. 213.

“He was exhaled; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.”

On the Death of a Very Young Gentlemen (1700).

“He trudged along unknowing what he sought,
And whistled as he went, for want of thought.”

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), Cymon and Iphigenia, Lines 84-85.

“Ill habits gather by unseen degrees —
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.”

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XV, The Worship of Aesculapius (1700), lines 155–156.

“Forgiveness to the injured does belong;
But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.”

Part 2, Act I, scene ii.
The Conquest of Granada (1669-1670)

“Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.”

Pt. I, line 868.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

“Let old Timotheus yield the prize,
Or both divide the crown;
He rais’d a mortal to the skies;
She drew an angel down.”

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 167–170.

“Of all the tyrannies on human kind
The worst is that which persecutes the mind.”

Pt. I, lines 239–240.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

“I am resolved to grow fat, and look young till forty.”

The Maiden Queen, Act iii, scene 1.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Of seeming arms to make a short essay,
Then hasten to be drunk — the business of the day.”

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), Cymon and Iphigenia, Lines 407–408.

“Bacchus, ever fair and ever young.”

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 54.

“Wit will shine
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.”

To the Memory of Mr. Oldham, line 15.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“And heaven had wanted one immortal song.
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand,
And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.”

Pt. I, lines 197–199. Compare Knolles, History (under a portrait of Mustapha I): "Greatnesse on Goodnesse loves to slide, not stand,/ And leaves, for Fortune’s ice, Vertue’s ferme land".
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

“Second thoughts, they say, are best.”

Act II, scene 2.
The Spanish Friar (1681)

“The sword within the scabbard keep,
And let mankind agree.”

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), The Secular Masque (1700), Lines 61–62.

“This is the porcelain clay of humankind.”

Don Sebastian (1690), Act I scene i.

“Endure the hardships of your present state,
Live, and reserve yourselves for better fate.”

Aeneis, Book I, lines 289–290.
The Works of Virgil (1697)

“So softly death succeeded life in her,
She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.”

Eleonora, Line 315.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“I have a soul that like an ample shield
Can take in all, and verge enough for more.”

Don Sebastian (1690), Act I scene i.

“And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove,
Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.”

Annus Mirabilis, Stanza 39.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.”

Pt. I, line 4.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

“She knows her man, and when you rant and swear,
Can draw you to her with a single hair.”

Persius, Satire v, line 246.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend
So great a poet and so good a friend.”

Epistle to Peter Antony Motteux (1698), lines 54–55.

“His hair just grizzled,
As in a green old age.”

Act III, scene i.
Œdipus (1679)

“Madam me no madam.”

The Wild Gallant, act ii. scene. 2.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Timotheus, to his breathing flute,
And sounding lyre,
Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.”

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 158–159.

“They say everything in the world is good for something.”

Act III, scene 2.
The Spanish Friar (1681)

“And new-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care
Turn'd by a gentle fire and roasted rare.”

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book viii. Baucis and Philemon, Line 97.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.”

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

“And kind as kings upon their coronation day.”

Pt. I, line 271.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

“Be kind to my remains; and oh defend,
Against your judgment, your departed friend!”

Epistle to Congreve (1693), line 72.

“Whistling to keep myself from being afraid.”

Amphitryon (1690), Act III scene iii.

“O gracious God! how far have we
Profaned thy heavenly gift of poesy!”

To the Pious Memory of Mrs. Anne Killegrew (1686), lines 56–57.

“All empire is no more than power in trust.”

Pt. I line 411.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

“I am reading Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare; an insolent, sparing, and invidious panegyric…”

On "To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare: and what he hath left us” by Ben Jonson, in Discourses on Satire and Epic Poetry (1692 - 1697) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2615

“A very merry, dancing, drinking,
Laughing, quaffing, and unthinkable time.”

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), The Secular Masque (1700), Lines 38–39.

“Reason to rule, mercy to forgive:
The first is law, the last prerogative.”

Pt. I, lines 261-262.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)