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Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

John Dryden

Tis a good thing to laugh at any rate; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness.
JOHN DRYDEN

Goodness Happiness Instrument Laughter Man Rate
Death ends our woes, and the kind grave shuts up the mournful scene.
JOHN DRYDEN

Death End Grave Kind Mourn
Every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies.
JOHN DRYDEN

Age Genius Kind Live Study Universe
Virgil and Horace were the severest writers of the severest age.
JOHN DRYDEN

Age Writing
Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.
JOHN DRYDEN

Forgiveness Injury Wrong
Imagining is in itself the very height and life of poetry, which, by a kind of enthusiasm or extraordinary emotion of the soul, makes it seem to us that we behold those things which the poet paints.
JOHN DRYDEN

Emotion Enthusiasm Height Imagination Paint Poet Soul
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections.
JOHN DRYDEN

Affection Goodness Grace Principal
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
The conscience of a people is their power.
JOHN DRYDEN

Conscience People Power
Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cement Foundation Knowledge Society Truth
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
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

Fortune Madness Prudence Rule
Repentance is but want of power to sin.
JOHN DRYDEN

One Liner Power Regret Sin
Fame then was cheap, and the first comer sped; And they have kept it since by being dead.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cheap Death Fame
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.
JOHN DRYDEN

Follow Natural Obligation Paint Rock Sculptor
Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie than the will can choose an apparent evil.
JOHN DRYDEN

Choice Delight Evil Lying Object Truth Understand

Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

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Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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