John Dryden Quotes

page 4

“Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,
And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.”

“A knockdown argument: 'tis but a word and a blow.”

“Not only hating David, but the king.”

“Since ev’ry man who lives is born to die,
And none can boast sincere felicity,
With equal mind, what happens, let us bear,
Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
Like pilgrims, to th' appointed place we tend;
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.”

“Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;
The next, in majesty; in both the last.
The force of Nature could no further go.
To make a third, she joined the former two.”

“Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife,
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.”

“And doomed to death, though fated not to die.”

“Men met each other with erected look,
The steps were higher that they took;
Friends to congratulate their friends made haste,
And long inveterate foes saluted as they passed.”

“And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.”

“For pity melts the mind to love.”

“Whatever is, is in its causes just.”

“Tis sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We have our fore-fathers and great-grandames all before us, as they were in Chaucer's days; their general characters are still remaining in mankind, and even in England, though they are call'd by other names than those of Monks and Friars, and Canons, and Lady Abbesses, and Nuns: for mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out of nature, though everything is altered.”

“When I consider life, 't is all a cheat.
Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.
To-morrow 's falser than the former day;
Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And from the dregs of life think to receive
What the first sprightly running could not give.”

“Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few.”

“I well believe, thou wouldst be great as he;
For every man's a fool to that degree:
All wish the dire prerogative to kill;
Ev'n they would have the power who want the will.”

“Love conquers all, and we must yield to Love.”

“Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears.”

“Look round the habitable world: how few
Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.”

“Calms appear, when storms are past,
Love will have its hour at last.”

“He's a sure card.”

“As sure as a gun.”

“Lord of humankind.”

“Love is love's reward. ”

“There are so few who have all the talents requisite for translation and… there is so little encouragement for so considerable part of learning.”