Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
JOHN DRYDENThey, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men.
More John Dryden Quotes
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I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night.
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Sweet is pleasure after pain.
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War seldom enters but where wealth allures.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Beware of the fury of the patient man.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Order is the greatest grace.
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All flowers will droop in the absence of the sun that waked their sweets.
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Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair.
JOHN DRYDEN -
They live too long who happiness outlive.
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For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
JOHN DRYDEN -
Virtue is her own reward.
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They that possess the prince possess the laws.
JOHN DRYDEN -
What passion cannot music raise and quell!
JOHN DRYDEN -
When a man’s life is under debate, The judge can ne’er too long deliberate.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Repartee is the soul of conversation.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.
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 -
Deathless laurel is the victor’s due.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Time glides with undiscover’d haste; The future but a length behind the past.
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 -
At home the hateful names of parties cease, And factious souls are wearied into peace.
JOHN DRYDEN -
He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
JOHN DRYDEN -
When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in poetry or painting, must produce a much greater; for both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature.
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For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Dancing is the poetry of the foot.
JOHN DRYDEN