The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man.
JOHN DRYDENAll empire is no more than power in trust.
More John Dryden Quotes
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Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.
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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 -
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Time and death shall depart and say in flying Love has found out a way to live, by dying.
JOHN DRYDEN -
He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
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We by art unteach what Nature taught.
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 -
What precious drops are those, Which silently each other’s track pursue, Bright as young diamonds in their faint dew?
JOHN DRYDEN -
A good conscience is a port which is landlocked on every side, where no winds can possibly invade. There a man may not only see his own image, but that of his Maker, clearly reflected from the undisturbed waters.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Blown roses hold their sweetness to the last.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Sure there is none but fears a future state; And when the most obdurate swear they do not, Their trembling hearts belie their boasting tongues.
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 -
Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.
JOHN DRYDEN -
When a man’s life is under debate, The judge can ne’er too long deliberate.
JOHN DRYDEN -
By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.
JOHN DRYDEN -
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.
JOHN DRYDEN -
We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.
JOHN DRYDEN -
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.
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We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
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 -
I am as free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran.
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Riches cannot rescue from the grave, which claims alike the monarch and the slave.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Repentance is but want of power to sin.
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Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Freedom which in no other land will thrive, Freedom an English subject’s sole prerogative.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Self-defense is Nature’s eldest law.
JOHN DRYDEN