John Dryden > Quotes

“Beware the fury of a patient man.”
― John Dryden

“Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense,
But good men starve for want of impudence.”
― John Dryden, The Poetical Works of John Dryden

“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.”
― John Dryden

“I am sore wounded but not slain
I will lay me down and bleed a while
And then rise up to fight again”
― John Dryden

“There is a pleasure sure in being mad which none but madmen know.”
― Dryden

“Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.”
― John Dryden, All for Love

“Great wits are to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.”
― John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

“Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. ”
― John Dryden

“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.”
― John Dryden

“Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.”
― John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

“…So when the last and dreadful hour
This crumbling pageant shall devour,
The trumpet shall be heard on high,
The dead shall live, the living die,
And Music shall untune the sky”
― John Dryden, The Major Works

“Secret guilt is by silence revealed.”
― John Dryden

“But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.”
― John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
― John Dryden

“When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fooled 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 possesst.”
― John Dryden, Aureng-Zebe

“I strongly wish for what I faintly hope; like the daydreams of melancholy men, I think and think in things impossible, yet love to wander in that golden maze.”
― John Dryden

“Look round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue!”
― John Dryden

“Welcome, thou kind deceiver!
Thou best of thieves: who, with an easy key,
Dost open life, and, unperceived by us,
Even steal us from ourselves.”
― John Dryden, All for Love

“Dancing is the poetry of the foot.”
― John Dryden

“Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.”
― John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

“Love is love's reward.”
― John Dryden

“Let Fortune empty her whole quiver on me, I have a soul that, like an ample shield, Can take in all, and verge enough for more; Fate was not mine, nor am I Fate's: Souls know no conquerors.”
― Dryden

“Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.”
― John Dryden

“None but the brave deserves the fair.”
― Dryden

“Order is the greatest grace”
― John Dryden

“For you may palm upon us new for old:
All, as they say, that glitters, is not gold.”
― John Dryden, The Hind And The Panther

“Night came, but unattended with repose.
Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close.
Alone and black she came; no friendly stars arose.”
― John Dryden

“Where'e're I go, my Soul shall stay with thee:
'Tis but my Shadow I take away...”
― John Dryden, King Arthur: or, the British worthy. A masque. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal in Crow-street. Altered from Dryden. The music by Purcell. To ... Arthur: extracted from the best historians.

“Death in itself is nothing; but we fear.
To be we know not what, we know not where.”
― John Dryden, Aureng-Zebe

“Rhyme is the rock on which thou art to wreck.”
― John Dryden