John Dryden quotes
John Dryden (1631–1700): 17th-century English poet and playwright. The library holds 258 quotes by John Dryden, drawn from Absalom and Achitophel, Cymon and Iphigenia, Alexander’s Feast and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, time, love, nature, change
The best-known John Dryden quotes
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Forgiveness to the injured does belong; But they ne’er pardon who have done the wrong.
The Conquest of Granada, Part ii. Act i. Sc. 2 -
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,—As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book xv. The Worship of Aesculapius, Line 155 Disputed attribution -
For truth has such a face and such a mien, As to be lov’d needs only to be seen.
The Hind and the Panther, Part i. Line 33 -
Look round the habitable world: how few Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
Juvenal, Satire x -
Old as I am, for ladies’ love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.
Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 1 -
For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.
The Cock and the Fox, Line 452 -
Fool, not to know that love endures no tie, And Jove but laughs at lovers’ perjury.
Palamon and Arcite, Book ii. Line 758 -
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear To be we know not what, we know not where.
Aurengzebe, Act iv. Sc. 1 -
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune’s ice prefers to Virtue’s land.
Absalom and Achitophel, Part i. Line 198 -
Not heaven itself upon the past has power; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
Imitation of Horace, Book iii. Ode 29, Line 71 -
Nor can his blessed soul look down from heaven, Or break the eternal sabbath of his rest.
The Spanish Friar, Act v. Sc. 2 -
Happy who in his verse can gently steer From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.
The Art of Poetry, Canto i. Line 75 -
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
Absalom and Achitophel, Part i. Line 163 -
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call to-day his own; He who, secure within, can say, To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv’d to-day.
Imitation of Horace, Book iii. Ode 29, Line 65 -
It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because in herself she is nothing, but is ruled by prudence.
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He who trusts a secret to his servant makes his own man his master.
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Men are but children of a larger growth.
All for Love, Act iv. Sc. 1 -
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise for cure on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend.
Epistle to John Dryden of Chesterton, Line 92 -
The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.
Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 107 -
Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure,—Sweet is pleasure after pain.
Alexander’s Feast, Line 58 -
She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, Can draw you to her with a single hair.
Persius, Satire v. Line 246 -
Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife, Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.
Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 133 -
Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; And every little absence is an age.
Amphictrion -
But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.
The Tempest, Prologue -
Nobler is a limited command Given by the love of all your native land, Than a successive title, long and dark, Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah’s ark.
Absalom and Achitophel, I -
Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own web from their own entrails spin; And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch.
Mariage à la Mode, Act ii. Sc. 1 -
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below.
All for Love, Prologue -
And threat’ning France, plac’d like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.
Annus Mirabilis, Stanza 39 -
But far more numerous was the herd of such Who think too little and who talk too much.
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He trudged along, unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
Cym. and Iph, Line 84 -
For truth has such a face and such a mien, As to be loved needs only to be seen.
The Hind and Panther -
Men are but children of a larger growth; Our appetites are apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.
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What can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
Medal, Line 235 -
Whate’er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone ’twas natural to please.
Absalom and Achitophel, Part i. Line 27 -
Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.
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Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are.
Tyrannic Love, Act iv. Sc. 1 -
From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, Line 11 -
The scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.
Don Sebastian -
He rais’d a mortal to the skies, She drew an angel down.
Alexander’s Feast, Line 169 -
Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
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Who think too little, and who talk too much.
Absalom and Achitophel, Part i. Line 534 -
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Absalom and Achitophel, Part i. Line 1005 -
Sooth’d with the sound, the king grew vain; Fought all his battles o’er again; And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.
Alexander’s Feast, Line 66 -
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.
Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. II -
Whatever is, is in its causes just.
OEdipus, Act iii. Sc. 1 -
None but the brave deserves the fair.
Alexander’s Feast, Line 15 -
Second thoughts, they say, are best.
The Spanish Friar, Act ii. Sc. 2 -
His preaching much, but more his practice wrought—A living sermon of the truths he taught.
Character of a Good Parson -
Her head was bare, but for her native ornament of hair, which in a simple knot was tied above; sweet negligence, unheeded bait of love!
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How strangely high endeavors may be blessed, where piety and valor jointly go.
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Poplicola’s doors were opened on the outside, to save the people even the common civility of asking entrance; where misfortune was a powerful recommendation, and where want itself was a powerful mediator.
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The secret pleasure of a generous act is the great mind’s great bribe.
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Having mourned your sin, for outward Eden lost, find paradise within.
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In tragedy and satire I maintain, against some critics, that this age and the last have excelled the ancients; and I would instance in Shakespeare of the former, in Dorset of the latter.
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(The mob is) the scum that rises uppermost when the nation boils.
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Such only enjoy the country as are capable of thinking when they are there; then they are prepared for solitude, and in that case solitude is prepared for them.
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We ought to attempt no more than what is in the compass of our genius and according to our vein.
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Great souls forgive not injuries till time has put their enemies within their power, that they may show forgiveness is their own.
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Monkeys, as soon as they have brought forth their young, keep their eyes fastened on them, and never weary of admiring their beauty; so amorous is Nature of whatever she produces.
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Age oppresses by the same degrees that it instructs us, and permits not that our mortal members, which are frozen with our years, should retain the vigor of our youth.
Where these quotes come from
- Absalom and Achitophel (21 quotes)
- Cymon and Iphigenia (9 quotes)
- Alexander’s Feast (9 quotes)
- Palamon and Arcite (4 quotes)
- All for Love (4 quotes)
- OEdipus (4 quotes)
- The Hind and the Panther (3 quotes)
- Aurengzebe (3 quotes)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .