Dryden, John quotes
1631-1700 British Poet Dramatist CriticAll human things are subject to decay, and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
Dryden, John
Death and Dying
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
Dryden, John
Death and Dying
Woman s honor is nice as ermine; it will not bear a soil.
Dryden, John
Honor
For all have not the gift of martyrdom.
Dryden, John
Conformity
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
Dryden, John
Conquest
Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.
Dryden, John
Decisions
Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Dryden, John
Contentment
For they conquer who believe they can.
Dryden, John
Confidence
Since every 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.
Dryden, John
Endurance
Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; The world s an inn, and death the journey s end.
Dryden, John
Death and Dying
To die is landing on some distant shore.
Dryden, John
Death and Dying
Nor is the people s judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
Dryden, John
Democracy
Self-defense is Nature s eldest law.
Dryden, John
Defense
All objects lose by too familiar a view.
Dryden, John
Familiarity
Railing and praising were his usual themes; and both showed his judgment in extremes. Either over violent or over civil, so everyone to him was either god or devil.
Dryden, John
Extremes and Extremists
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
Dryden, John
Habit
So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.
Dryden, John
Extremes and Extremists
It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.
Dryden, John
Fortune
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
Dryden, John
Fate
Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
Dryden, John
Habit
Seek not to know what must not be reveal, for joy only flows where fate is most concealed. A busy person would find their sorrows much more; if future fortunes were known before!
Dryden, John
Fate
Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
Dryden, John
Genius
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
Dryden, John
Genius
He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
Dryden, John
Fear
Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.
Dryden, John
Love
Love is love s reward.
Dryden, John
Love
Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
Dryden, John
Love
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.
Dryden, John
Genius
Pains of love be sweeter far than all the other pleasures are.
Dryden, John
Pain
Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.
Dryden, John
Kings
When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
Dryden, John
Life and Living
Mighty things from small beginnings grow.
Dryden, John
Power
For present joys are more to flesh and blood than a dull prospect of a distant good.
Dryden, John
Joy
Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.
Dryden, John
Jealousy
All heiresses are beautiful.
Dryden, John
Inheritance
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Dryden, John
Patience
Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
Dryden, John
Reason
Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.
Dryden, John
Tomorrow
Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!
Dryden, John
Opportunity
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
Dryden, John
Patriotism
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.
Dryden, John
Politicians and Politics
The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.
Dryden, John
Parents and Parenting
He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.
Dryden, John
Plagiarism
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
Dryden, John
Price
Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son.
Dryden, John
Misers and Misery
She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.
Dryden, John
Sin
Repentance is but want of power to sin.
Dryden, John
Repentance
Plots, true or false, are necessary things, to raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings.
Dryden, John
Revolutions and Revolutionaries
Far more numerous are those as such; who think to little and talk to much.
Dryden, John
Thoughts and Thinking
Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you don t let other people spend it for you.
Dryden, John
Time and Time Management
War is the trade of Kings.
Dryden, John
War
War, he sung, is toil and trouble; Honor but an empty bubble.
Dryden, John
War
He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
Dryden, John
Trust
Not to ask is not be denied.
Dryden, John
Silence
Successful crimes alone are justified.
Dryden, John
Crime and Criminals
Drinking is the soldier s pleasure.
Dryden, John
Army and Navy
Fool that I was, upon my eagle s wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.
Dryden, John
Aid and Assistance
Fortune befriends the bold.
Dryden, John
Boldness
Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.
Dryden, John
Adulthood
Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is, with thoughts of what may be.
Dryden, John
Anxiety
Nature meant me a wife, a silly harmless household Dove, fond without art; and kind without deceit.
Dryden, John
Wives
Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
Dryden, John
Vocation