If thou dost still retain the same ill habits, the same follies, too, still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.
JOHN DRYDENHe who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
More John Dryden Quotes
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Fiction is of the essence of poetry as well as of painting; there is a resemblance in one of human bodies, things, and actions which are not real, and in the other of a true story by fiction.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Mighty things from small beginnings grow.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.
JOHN DRYDEN -
The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind’s great bribe.
JOHN DRYDEN -
While I am compassed round With mirth, my soul lies hid in shades of grief, Whence, like the bird of night, with half-shut eyes, She peeps, and sickens at the sight of day.
JOHN DRYDEN -
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
JOHN DRYDEN -
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.
JOHN DRYDEN -
For those whom God to ruin has design’d, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
JOHN DRYDEN -
The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun, Is Nature’s eye.
JOHN DRYDEN -
But love’s a malady without a cure.
JOHN DRYDEN -
No government has ever been, or can ever be, wherein time-servers and blockheads will not be uppermost.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
JOHN DRYDEN -
An horrible stillness first invades our ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Dreams are but interludes that fancy makes… Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Since every man who lives is born to die, And none can boast sincere felicity, With equal mind, what happens, let us bear, Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. Like pilgrims to the’ appointed place we tend; The world’s an inn, and death the journey’s end.
JOHN DRYDEN -
It is a madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because in herself she is nothing, can rule nothing, but is ruled by prudence.
JOHN DRYDEN -
For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
JOHN DRYDEN -
Take not away the life you cannot give: For all things have an equal right to live.
JOHN DRYDEN -
They first condemn that first advised the ill.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother ten, Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies.
JOHN DRYDEN -
But when to sin our biased nature leans, The careful Devil is still at hand with means; And providently pimps for ill desires.
JOHN DRYDEN -
A happy genius is the gift of nature.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Presence of mind and courage in distress, Are more than arrives to procure success?
JOHN DRYDEN -
For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.
JOHN DRYDEN -
At home the hateful names of parties cease, And factious souls are wearied into peace.
JOHN DRYDEN