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Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

John Dryden

Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine, The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not heaven itself upon the past has power; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fair Fate Myself Possession Rain Shine Time
No government has ever been, or can ever be, wherein time-servers and blockheads will not be uppermost.
JOHN DRYDEN

Block Government Time
For all the happiness mankind can gain Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain.
JOHN DRYDEN

Happiness Kind Man Sadness
Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.
JOHN DRYDEN

Children Crave Growth Man
Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.
JOHN DRYDEN

Performance Quick Slow
A farce is that in poetry which grotesque (caricature) is in painting. The persons and actions of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsistent with the characters of mankind; and grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this.
JOHN DRYDEN

Character Kind Man Natural Painting Person Poetry
Men’s virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes.
JOHN DRYDEN

Crime Freedom Tax Virtue
Dreams are but interludes that fancy makes… Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Dreams Forget Forward Mindset Time
Youth, beauty, graceful action seldom fail: But common interest always will prevail; And pity never ceases to be shown To him who makes the people’s wrongs his own.
JOHN DRYDEN

Action Beautiful Fall Grace Himself People Wrong Youth
Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Kind Man Vice Virtue
There is a pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know.
JOHN DRYDEN

Known Mad Pleasure
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

Creation Earth Eyes Man Mom Sky Soft
So the false spider, when her nets are spread, deep ambushed in her silent den does lie.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fake Lying Silence
Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.
JOHN DRYDEN

Blind Willing Zeal
Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.
JOHN DRYDEN

Authors Enthusiasm Expectation Truth
And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere Free from corruption, or entire, or clear, Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire In all things which our needful faith require.
JOHN DRYDEN

Corruption Faith Freedom Need Scripture Sufficient

Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

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Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

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