All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey;
This Flecknoe found, who like Augustus young
Was call'd to empire, and had govern'd long:
In prose and verse, was own'd, without dispute
Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute.


John Dryden

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

All human things are subject to decay, And when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
JOHN DRYDEN
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
JOHN DRYDEN
THE THREE LAWS OF ALL

You are never to worship a living soul,
Except for three entit...
SUZY KASSEM
When all the world is young, lad,
And all the trees are green;
And every goose a swan, lad, CHARLES KINGSLEY
OF writing many books there is no end;
And I who have written much in prose and verse
For ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
There once was a young man from Lyme
Who couldn't get his limericks to rhyme
When asked "Why...
ANONYMOUS
There was a young lady named Mae
Who smoked without stopping all day;
As pack followed pac...
EDWARD GOREY
Wealth and dominion fade into the mass
Of the great sea of human right and wrong,
When onc...
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
THIS IS WHY

He will never be given to wonder much
if he was the mouth for some cruel...
MICHAEL RYAN
during my worst times
on the park benches
in the jails
or living with
whores
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
A man -- I let the truth out --
Who's had almost every tooth out,
Cannot sing as once he san...
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY
Hope Was but a timid friend;
She sat without the grated den,
Watching how my fate would te...
EMILY BRONTë
Love Was
Love Will Be
But Most of All,
Love is.
Life Cannot Be Without It
I...
CINDY MARTINUSEN COLOMA
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched.
Through thee the rose is red; RALPH WALDO EMERSON
This is what I am, I'll say, to leave this written
excuse. This is my life.
Now it is clea...
PABLO NERUDA
That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying

I wen...
MARY OLIVER
Where are You Now? I was there whilst you cried,

I was there to comfort you with smile, LUISA NATASHA PARKER
I LOVE YOU SO MANY REASONS '

---
Before i met you
I spent a lot of time
...
SUSAN POLIS SCHUTZ
It seemed my whole
life was composed of these disjointed
fractions of time, hanging around...
DONNA TARTT
Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Su...
JOHN MILTON
I have been
hanging here
headless
for so long
that the body has forgotten
w...
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
A Litany for Survival

For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon...
AUDRE LORDE
Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,
Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found....
ALEXANDER POPE
I lived here once," the author said after a moment.
"Here? For a long time?"
"No. For just...
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
(You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel as...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
Thus repulsed, our final hope
Is flat despair: we must exasperate
The Almighty Victor to s...
JOHN MILTON
There are passages and doors
And Realms that lie unseen.
There are Roads both wide and na...
WAYNE THOMAS BATSON
The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
Th...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
With fire and sword the country round
Was wasted far and wide,
And many a childing mother...
ROBERT SOUTHEY
there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
I write poetry, worry, smile,
laugh
sleep
continue for a while
just like most of...
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when...
MARY OLIVER
Nachkland - Roland Leighton

Down the long white road we walked together
Down between...
ROLAND LEIGHTON
Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me am...
DANTE ALIGHIERI
Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through m...
DANTE ALIGHIERI
Why had peace given place so soon to turmoil? To two separate solitudes? Because peace had been with...
MARY BALOGH
When we are old and these rejoicing veins
Are frosty channels to a muted stream,
And out of a...
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
After a moment, Wrath turned to John. "This is Lassiter, the fallen angel. One of the last times he ...
J.R. WARD
Great use they have, when in the hands
Of one like me, who understands,
Who understands the ...
CHARLES CHURCHILL
Great use they have, when in the hands
Of one like me, who understands,
Who understands the ...
CHARLES CHURCHILL
Through the forest have I gone.
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
I was transformed the day
My ego shattered,
And all the superficial, material
Things ...
SUZY KASSEM
When Mathematics unfold through Origamis,
when video games target Medicine and Education,
NATASHA TSAKOS
Who dreamt
and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space
through images juxtaposed,
a...
ALLEN GINSBERG
I surrendered my beliefs
and found myself at the tree of life
injecting my story into the...
SAUL WILLIAMS
He who leads
Must then be strong and hopeful as the dawn
That rises unafraid and full of joy<...
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
While walking in a toy store
The day before today,
I overheard a Crayon Box
With many thin...
ANON.
Through a trick lighting technique
the skyline was made and faded
with the care of a poi...
KRISTEN HENDERSON
If it all be for naught, for nothingness at last,
Why does God make the world so fair?
Why spi...
ANON.
Backward we traveled to reclaim the day
Before we fell, like Icarus, undone;
All we find a...
SYLVIA PLATH
...What are numbers knit
By force or custom? Man who man would be,
Must rule the empire of hi...
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I've lost myself..."
"...since I found us."
"My God's upset,renounced my faith..."
"....
DR. KARAN M PAI
My own dim life should teach me this,
That life shall live for evermore,
Else earth is dar...
ALFRED TENNYSON
All things by immortal power,
Near and Far
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
That t...
FRANCIS THOMPSON
This must be
what love is:

a pain so radiant
it cuts through all others.
SARA ELIZA JOHNSON
His mind was freshly inclined to sorrow; toward the fact that the world was full of sorrow; that all...
GEORGE SAUNDERS
This is an ode to life.
The anthem of the world.
For as there are billions
of differe...
KAMAND KOJOURI
THE BARROW

In this high field strewn with stones
I walk by a green mound,
It...
ANTHONY THWAITE
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And w...
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Even when I was a very young man,
I was looking for the purpose of life;
I was looking fo...
DEBASISH MRIDHA
She raised her hand to cut me off. "I am aware of your epistolary flirtation. Which is all well and ...
DAVID LEVITHAN
In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
in...
MARY OLIVER
There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol....
ALDOUS HUXLEY
Augustus: “You probably need some rest.”
Me: “I’m okay.”
Augustus: “Okay.” (...
JOHN GREEN
i am like a survivor
of the flood
walking through the streets
drenched with
God<...
SAUL WILLIAMS
Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
f...
NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
On thinking about Hell, I gather
My brother Shelley found it was a place
Much like the cit...
BERTOLT BRECHT
Through me is the way to the city of woe.
Through me is the way to sorrow eternal.
Throu...
DANTE ALIGHIERI
From birth to death and further on

As we were born and introduced into this world,
W...
VIRGIL KALYANA MITTATA IORDACHE
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
Wh...
KRISTEN MCKEE
When the great universe was wrought
To might and majesty from naught,
The all creative force...
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
What is this thing you call substance abuse?
All I wanna do is forget and get loose.
Drin...
BENJAMIN ALIRE SáENZ
Augustus, perhaps you’d like to share your fears with the group.”
“My fears?”
“Y...
JOHN GREEN
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
a...
MARY OLIVER
Monotheism and an absolute God define one another.

The absolute is a mental construct, an...
HAROUTIOUN BOCHNAKIAN
nothing's news.
it's the same old thing in
disguise.
only one thing comes without a CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Lay down
Your tired & weary head my friend.
We have wept too long
Night is fallin...
JOSé N. HARRIS
It was the exact opposite
for me. At first all I
wanted was sex with her,
but soon I ...
ELLEN HOPKINS
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must al...
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
blue-gold sky, fresh cloud,
emerald-black mountain, trees
on rocky ledges,

o...
BARBARA BLATNER
what a shame we all became such fragile, broken things.
A memory remains just a tiny spark.
HAYLEY WILLIAMS
The Three Laws of Robotics:

1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction,...
ISAAC ASIMOV
Venus of Eryx, from her mountain throne,
Saw Hades and clasped her swift-winged son, and said:<...
OVID
There is a desire within each of us,
in the deep center of ourselves
that we call our hea...
GERALD G. MAY
Here, when I say I never want to be without you,
somewhere else I am saying
I never want t...
BOB HICOK
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till...
EMILY DICKINSON
Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling MARY OLIVER
It was two weeks after the day she turned eighteen
All dressed in white
Going to the churc...
CARRIE UNDERWOOD
He who is in harmony with the Tao
is like a newborn child.
Its bones are soft, its muscles...
LAO TZU
What was it like to love him? Asked Gratitude.
It was like being exhumed, I answered, and broug...
LANG LEAV
I KNEW IT WAS OVER

when tonight you couldn't make the phone ring
when you use...
DAPHNE GOTTLIEB
The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden<...
ALLEN GINSBERG
Glossa

Time goes by, time comes along,
All is old and all is new;
What is righ...
MIHAI EMINESCU
Human. Happiness. Death.
Everything becomes one pale
memory in the flow of time.
Spir...
ALEXANDAR TOMOV
What was it like to lose him?" Asked Sorrow.
There was a long pause before I responded:
<...
LANG LEAV
Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie--
Dust unto dust--
The calm, sweet earth tha...
RALPH CHAPLIN
An image of Sydney's face appeared in my mind's eye, calm and lovely.
I believe in you.<...
RICHELLE MEAD
when we were kids
laying around the lawn
on our
bellies

we often talked CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Hardly had the light been extinguished, when a peculiar trembling began
to affect the netting u...
VICTOR HUGO
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never whol...
E.E. CUMMINGS

More John Dryden

His ignorance is encyclopedic.
JOHN DRYDEN
For your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.
JOHN DRYDEN
We spirits have just such natures We had for all the world, when human creatures; And, therefo...
JOHN DRYDEN
Nor can his blessed soul look down from heaven, Or break the eternal sabbath of his rest.
JOHN DRYDEN
Since Heaven's eternal year is thine.
JOHN DRYDEN
The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven.
JOHN DRYDEN
Errors like straws upon the surface flow: Who would search for pearls must dive below.
JOHN DRYDEN
For that can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
JOHN DRYDEN
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
JOHN DRYDEN
Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain: Fought all his battles o'er again; And thrice he r...
JOHN DRYDEN
Fool that I was, upon my eagle's wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now ...
JOHN DRYDEN
The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it.
JOHN DRYDEN
Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.
JOHN DRYDEN
Fortune, that with malicious joyDoes man her slave oppress,Proud of her office to destroy,Is seldom ...
JOHN DRYDEN
Such subtle Covenants shall be made,Till Peace it self is War in Masquerade.
JOHN DRYDEN
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
JOHN DRYDEN
Like pilgrims to the appointed place we tend; The world's an inn, and death the journey's end.
JOHN DRYDEN
To die is landing on some distant shore.
JOHN DRYDEN
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. . . . It takes a touch of genius--and...
JOHN DRYDEN
Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a...
JOHN DRYDEN
But genius must be born, and never can be taught.
JOHN DRYDEN
To take up half on trust, and half to try, Name it not faith but bungling bigotry.
JOHN DRYDEN
For friendship, of itself a holy tie, Is made more sacred by adversity.
JOHN DRYDEN
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
JOHN DRYDEN
It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a colleg...
JOHN DRYDEN
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
JOHN DRYDEN
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
JOHN DRYDEN
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.
JOHN DRYDEN
Joy rul'd the day, and Love the night.
JOHN DRYDEN
Mighty things from small beginnings grow.
JOHN DRYDEN
Nature meant me a wife, a silly harmless household Dove, fond without art; and kind without deceit.
JOHN DRYDEN
Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others...
JOHN DRYDEN
The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.
JOHN DRYDEN
Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!
JOHN DRYDEN
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.
JOHN DRYDEN
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
JOHN DRYDEN
Beware the fury of a patient man.
JOHN DRYDEN
Oh that my Pow'r to Saving were confin
JOHN DRYDEN
Fortune befriends the bold.
JOHN DRYDEN
For they conquer who believe they can.
JOHN DRYDEN
Successful crimes alone are justified.
JOHN DRYDEN
Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.
JOHN DRYDEN
Fool that I was, upon my eagle's wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he m...
JOHN DRYDEN
Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
JOHN DRYDEN
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
JOHN DRYDEN
Woman's honor is nice as ermine; it will not bear a soil.
JOHN DRYDEN
He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
JOHN DRYDEN
Seek not to know what must not be reveal, for joy only flows where fate is most concealed. A busy pe...
JOHN DRYDEN
Nor is the people's judgement always true;
The most may err as grossly as the few.
JOHN DRYDEN
Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
JOHN DRYDEN
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.
JOHN DRYDEN
Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.
JOHN DRYDEN
Repentance is but want of power to sin.
JOHN DRYDEN
Reason to rule but mercy to forgive:
The first is the law, the last prerogative.
JOHN DRYDEN
All objects lose by too familiar a view.
JOHN DRYDEN
Self-defense is Nature's eldest law.
JOHN DRYDEN
Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.
JOHN DRYDEN
He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.
JOHN DRYDEN
Pains of love be sweeter far than all the other pleasures are.
JOHN DRYDEN
He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
JOHN DRYDEN
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure.
JOHN DRYDEN
Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as cravi...
JOHN DRYDEN
Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.
JOHN DRYDEN
Since every man who lives is born to die, and none can boast sincere felicity, with equal mind, what...
JOHN DRYDEN
All heiresses are beautiful.
JOHN DRYDEN
We lov'd, and we lov'd as long as we could
Til our love was lov'd out in us both;
But our marr...
JOHN DRYDEN
It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled...
JOHN DRYDEN
For present joys are more to flesh and blood than a dull prospect of a distant good.
JOHN DRYDEN
Railing and praising were his usual themes; and both showed his judgment in extremes. Either over vi...
JOHN DRYDEN
So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.
JOHN DRYDEN
Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
JOHN DRYDEN
The people have a right supreme
To make their kings, for Kings are made for them.
All Empire i...
JOHN DRYDEN
Plots, true or false, are necessary things, to raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings.
JOHN DRYDEN
Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, to...
JOHN DRYDEN
For all have not the gift of martyrdom.
JOHN DRYDEN
Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet 'em on your way down.
JOHN DRYDEN
Ever a glutton, at another's cost, But in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost.
JOHN DRYDEN
Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
JOHN DRYDEN
She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.
JOHN DRYDEN
Not to ask is not be denied.
JOHN DRYDEN
He's a sure card.
JOHN DRYDEN
The brave man seeks not popular applause, Nor, overpower'd with arms, deserts his cause; Unsha...
JOHN DRYDEN
Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
JOHN DRYDEN
Thespis, the first professor of our art, At country wakes snug ballads from a cart.
JOHN DRYDEN
A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.
JOHN DRYDEN
Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet, Which once inflam'd m...
JOHN DRYDEN
There is a pleasure, sure, In being mad, which none but madmen know!
JOHN DRYDEN
Keen appetite And quick digestion wait on you and yours.
JOHN DRYDEN
They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write, Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.
JOHN DRYDEN
All, as they say, that glitters is not gold.
JOHN DRYDEN
Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time, But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.
JOHN DRYDEN
If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mo...
JOHN DRYDEN
Whistling to keep myself from being afraid.
JOHN DRYDEN
By education most have been misled.
JOHN DRYDEN
Beware the fury of a patient man. -John Dryden.
JOHN DRYDEN
Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; every little absence is an age.
JOHN DRYDEN
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.
JOHN DRYDEN
And kind as kings upon their coronation day.
JOHN DRYDEN
Such subtle covenants shall be made, Till peace itself is war in masquerade.
JOHN DRYDEN
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call to-day his own: He who, secure within, can...
JOHN DRYDEN
Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions--it only guarantees equality of opportunity.
JOHN DRYDEN
Democracy is essentially anti-authoritarian--that is, it not only demands the right but imposes the...
JOHN DRYDEN
God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscienc...
JOHN DRYDEN
For who can be secure of private right, If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might? Nor is th...
JOHN DRYDEN
Deserted, at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed; On the bare earth exposed he lie...
JOHN DRYDEN
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
JOHN DRYDEN
Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own web from their own entrails spin; And w...
JOHN DRYDEN
Hard features every bungler can command: To draw true beauty shows a master's hand.
JOHN DRYDEN
Ill news is wing'd with fate, and flies apace.
JOHN DRYDEN
As when the dove returning bore the mark Of earth restored to the long labouring ark; The reli...
JOHN DRYDEN
And after hearing what our Church can say, If still our reason runs another way, That private ...
JOHN DRYDEN
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail, Our lion now will foreign foes assail.
JOHN DRYDEN
Maintain your post: That's all the fame you need; For 'tis impossible you should proceed.
JOHN DRYDEN
Not aw'd to duty by superior sway.
JOHN DRYDEN
Who climbs the grammar-tree, distinctly knows Where noun, and verb, and participle grows.
JOHN DRYDEN
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
JOHN DRYDEN
God never made His work for man to mend.
JOHN DRYDEN
Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with lies, To please the fools, and puzzle all the wis...
JOHN DRYDEN
Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes; When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes.
JOHN DRYDEN
When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!
JOHN DRYDEN
The conscience of a people is their power.
JOHN DRYDEN
This comes of altering fundamental laws and overpersuading by his landlord to take physic (of which...
JOHN DRYDEN
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
JOHN DRYDEN
Pains of love be sweeter far than all other pleasures are.
JOHN DRYDEN
Words are but pictures of our thoughts.
JOHN DRYDEN
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
JOHN DRYDEN
There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.
JOHN DRYDEN
Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
JOHN DRYDEN
And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere Free from corruption, or entire, or clear, Are ...
JOHN DRYDEN
At every close she made, th' attending throng Replied, and bore the burden of the song: So jus...
JOHN DRYDEN
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme! The young men's vision, and the old men's dream.
JOHN DRYDEN
Whatever he did, was done with so much ease, In him alone 'twas natural to please.
JOHN DRYDEN
Creator Venus, genial power of love, The bliss of men below, and gods above! Beneath the slidi...
JOHN DRYDEN
With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems...
JOHN DRYDEN
Whatever is, is in its causes just.
JOHN DRYDEN
Lord of human kind.
JOHN DRYDEN
The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd: Nor to rebuke the rich offender fear'd. His preac...
JOHN DRYDEN
The welcome news is in the letter found; The carrier's not commission'd to expound; It speaks ...
JOHN DRYDEN
A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.
JOHN DRYDEN
When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her. [Lat., Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la ...
JOHN DRYDEN
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, Fallen from his high estate, And welt'ring in his blood; ...
JOHN DRYDEN
A very merry, dancing, drinking, Laughing, quaffing, and unthinking time.
JOHN DRYDEN
He made all countries where he came his own.
JOHN DRYDEN
And nobler is a limited command, Given by the love of all your native land, Than a successive ...
JOHN DRYDEN
Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong.
JOHN DRYDEN
The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees. Th...
JOHN DRYDEN
Ay, these look like the workmanship of heaven; This is the porcelain clay of human kind, And t...
JOHN DRYDEN
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
JOHN DRYDEN
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
JOHN DRYDEN
Then hasten to be drunk, the business of the day.
JOHN DRYDEN
She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, Can draw you to her with a single hair.
JOHN DRYDEN
Those wanting wit affect gravity, and go by the name of solid men.
JOHN DRYDEN
And all to leave what with his toil he won, To that unfeather'd two-legged thing, a son.
JOHN DRYDEN
He raised a mortal to the skies; She drew an angel down.
JOHN DRYDEN
Skill'd in the globe and sphere, he gravely stands, And, with his compass, measures seas and lands...
JOHN DRYDEN
Damn'd neuters, in their middle way of steering, Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring...
JOHN DRYDEN
None are so busy as the fool and knave.
JOHN DRYDEN
We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.
JOHN DRYDEN
They think too little who talk too much.
JOHN DRYDEN
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
JOHN DRYDEN
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will ...
JOHN DRYDEN
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He, who can call to-day his own:
He who, secure within, c...
JOHN DRYDEN
But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little and who talk too much.
JOHN DRYDEN
Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare.
JOHN DRYDEN
Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be ...
JOHN DRYDEN
Far more numerous are those as such; who think to little and talk to much.
JOHN DRYDEN
War, he sung, is toil and trouble; Honor but an empty bubble.
JOHN DRYDEN
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
JOHN DRYDEN
Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.
JOHN DRYDEN
Love is love's reward.
JOHN DRYDEN
Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
JOHN DRYDEN
Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is, with thoughts of what may be.
JOHN DRYDEN
When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
JOHN DRYDEN
Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife, Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.
JOHN DRYDEN
But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.
JOHN DRYDEN
And heaven had wanted one immortal song.
JOHN DRYDEN
Out of the solar walk and Heaven's highway.
JOHN DRYDEN
The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun, Is Nature's eye.
JOHN DRYDEN
Behold him setting in his western skies, The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.
JOHN DRYDEN
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
JOHN DRYDEN
The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.
JOHN DRYDEN
There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and stupidity. And I am unsure about the un...
JOHN DRYDEN
When he spoke, what tender words he used! So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow, They melted...
JOHN DRYDEN
Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with awe, And stupid at the wondrous things he saw, Surpa...
JOHN DRYDEN
The winds that never moderation knew, Afraid to blow too much, too faintly blew; Or out of bre...
JOHN DRYDEN
Treason is not own'd when 'tis descried; Successful crimes alone are justified.
JOHN DRYDEN
Trust on and think To-morrow will repay; To-morrow's falser than the former day; Lies worse; a...
JOHN DRYDEN
Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well; the chi...
JOHN DRYDEN
She deserves / More worlds than I can lose.
JOHN DRYDEN
And all to leave, what with this toil he won, / To that unfeathered, two-legged thing, a son.
JOHN DRYDEN
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased w...
JOHN DRYDEN
And love's the noblest frailty of the mind.
JOHN DRYDEN
When rattling bones together fly, / From the four corners of the sky.
JOHN DRYDEN
Errors like straws upon the surface flow: Who would search for pearls must dive below
JOHN DRYDEN
To live at ease, and not be bound to think.
JOHN DRYDEN
A mob is the scum that rises utmost when the nation boils
JOHN DRYDEN
To see and to be seen, in heaps they run; / Some to undo, and some to be undone.
JOHN DRYDEN
Even victors are by victory undone
JOHN DRYDEN
Sighed and looked, and sighed again.
JOHN DRYDEN
I'm a little wounded but I'm not slain; I will lay me down for to bleed awhile, Then I'll rise and f...
JOHN DRYDEN