“Self-defense is Nature's eldest law.”
Source: Selected poems
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Famous John Dryden Quotes
“The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme, The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)
“Such subtle Covenants shall be made,Till Peace it self is War in Masquerade.”
Source: The Poems of John Dryden
“There is a pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know.”
“He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.”
“So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.”
Source: Poems on Various Occasions: And Translations from Several Authors
“For all the happiness mankind can gain Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain.”
“Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure,- Sweet is pleasure after pain.”
“Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.”
“Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?”
Source: The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis: and of Aulus Persius Flaccus
“Fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods, and wing their hasty flight to happier lands.”
Source: The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected ...
“Those who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write, Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Dryden
Source: The Works of John Dryden in Verse and Prose
“All objects lose by too familiar a view.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)
“We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.”
“Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.”
Source: The Works of John Dryden, Volume XX: Prose 1691-1698 De Arte Graphica and Shorter Works
“Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair.”
Source: Dryden: Selected Poems
“He made all countries where he came his own.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations
“Plots, true or false, are necessary things, To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.”
“Ever a glutton, at another's cost, But in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost.”
Source: The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales and Translations
“I never saw any good that came of telling truth.”
Source: A Select Collection of the Best Modern English Plays
Source: The works of John Dryden now first collected ...
“Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.”
Source: The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden, Now First Collected ...
“Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.”
Source: Dryden: Selected Poems
“For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools.”
“Not Heav'n itself upon the past has pow'r; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.”
Source: THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN, Esq; Containing All His ORIGINAL POEMS, TALES, AND TRANSLATIONS, IN FOUR VOLUMES.: VOLUME THE SECOND
Source: The Poetical works
“I trade both with the living and the dead, for the enrichment of our native language.”
Source: The Works of John Dryden, Volume V: Poems, 1697
“So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.”
Source: The works of John Dryden: now first collected in eighteen volumes. Illustrated with notes, historical, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author
Source: Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)
“Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.”
Source: Poetical works
“But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.”
Source: Poetical Works: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations