John Dryden Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of John Dryden's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Poet John Dryden's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 480 quotes on this page collected since August 9, 1631! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.

    Death   Fear   Knows  
    'Aureng-Zebe' (1675) act 4, sc. 1
  • Sculptors are obliged to follow the manners of the painters, and to make many ample folds, which are unsufferable hardness, and more like a rock than a natural garment.

  • Maintain your post: That's all the fame you need; For 'tis impossible you should proceed.

    Needs   Impossible   Fame  
    John Dryden (1868). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.256
  • If one must be rejected, one succeed, make him my lord within whose faithful breast is fixed my image, and who loves me best.

    Faithful   Succeed   Lord  
    John Dryden (1854). “Poetical Works”, p.13
  • Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son.

    War   Son   Soul  
  • Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or, at least shut up in fewer words.

    John Dryden (1808). “The works of John Dryden now first collected ...”, p.121
  • I learn to pity woes so like my own.

    Woe   Pity   My Own  
    John Dryden, C. B., Esquire Charles BATHURST (1852). “Selections from the poetry of Dryden, including his plays and translations. [The editor's preface signed: C. B., i.e. Charles Bathurst.]”, p.298
  • All heiresses are beautiful.

    John Dryden (1717). “The Dramatick Works of John Dryden, Esq: Don Sebastian, king of Portugal. Amphitryon: or, The two Sosia's. Cleomenes, the Spartan heroe. King Arthur. Love triumphant”
  • Presence of mind and courage in distress, Are more than arrives to procure success?

  • What precious drops are those, Which silently each other's track pursue, Bright as young diamonds in their faint dew?

    Track   Tears   Dew  
    John Dryden (1904*). “John Dryden”
  • Satire is a kind of poetry in which human vices are reprehended.

    Vices   Kind   Satire  
  • Virgil and Horace [were] the severest writers of the severest age.

    Age  
    1677 'The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry and Heroic Licence', an essay prefacing State of Innocence, a libretto based on Paradise Lost.
  • Order is the greatest grace.

    Order   Grace  
    John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author”, p.417
  • The longest tyranny that ever sway'd Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle], And made his torch their universal light. So truth, while only one suppli'd the state, Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.

    Truth   Light   Torches  
    John Dryden, John Sargeaunt (1929). “The Poems of John Dryden, Ed., with an Introduction and Textual Notes”
  • Freedom which in no other land will thrive, Freedom an English subject's sole prerogative.

    Freedom   Land   Sole  
    'Threnodia Augustalis' (1685) st. 10
  • Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.

    Heart   Numbers   Grows  
    John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes”, p.171
  • For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.

    Age   Taste   Youth  
    John Dryden (1853). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden. With Illustrations by John Franklin”, p.260
  • What, start at this! when sixty years have spread. Their grey experience o'er thy hoary head? Is this the all observing age could gain? Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?

    Birthday   Years   Long  
  • Doeg, though without knowing how or why, Made still a blundering kind of melody; Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd through thick and thin, Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in; Free from all meaning whether good or bad, And in one word, heroically mad.

    Knowing   Mad   Poetry  
    John Dryden (1873). “Poetical Works: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.69
  • Politicians neither love nor hate.

    Love   Hate   Love Hate  
    1681 Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.223.
  • Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.

    John Dryden, Edmond Malone (1800). “The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden, Now First Collected ...”, p.349
  • Beware of the fury of the patient man.

    Fear   Men   Atheism  
  • Thoughts cannot form themselves in words so horrid As can express my guilt.

    Guilt   Form  
    John Bell, Joseph Addison, Michael Arne, John Banks, John Brown (1792). “British Theatre: Isabella, or, The fatal marriage”
  • For all have not the gift of martyrdom.

    John Dryden (1767). “THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN, Esq; Containing All His ORIGINAL POEMS, TALES, AND TRANSLATIONS, IN FOUR VOLUMES.: VOLUME THE SECOND”, p.31
  • How happy the lover, How easy his chain, How pleasing his pain, How sweet to discover He sighs not in vain.

    Life   Sweet   Pain  
    John Dryden (1762). “The Dramatick Works of John Dryden, Esq: In Six Volumes”, p.372
  • Present joys are more to flesh and blood Than a dull prospect of a distant good.

    'The Hind and the Panther' (1687) pt. 3, l. 364
  • There is an inimitable grace in Virgil's words, and in them principally consists that beauty which gives so inexpressible a pleasure to him who best understands their force. This diction of his, I must once again say, is never to be copied; and since it cannot, he will appear but lame in the best translation.

    Giving   Grace   Diction  
    John Dryden (1866). “Poetical Works: With a Memoir”, p.129
  • Love and Time with reverence use, Treat them like a parting friend: Nor the golden gifts refuse Which in youth sincere they send: For each year their price is more, And they less simple than before.

    Time   Simple   Years  
    John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.2065, Delphi Classics
  • If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.

    Gratitude   Sweet   Past  
    John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author”, p.251
  • Pains of love be sweeter far than all other pleasures are.

    Love   Life   Breakup  
    'Tyrannic Love' (1669) act 4, sc. 1
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 480 quotes from the Poet John Dryden, starting from August 9, 1631! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!