John Dryden quote: "He [Shakespeare] was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul . . . He was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there."

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

All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey;
This Fleckn...
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

He [Shakespeare] was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul . . . He was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there.

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John Dryden

He [Shakespeare] was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul . . . He was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found her there.

John Dryden

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