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Fool that I was, upon my eagle’s wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.

John Dryden

Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.
JOHN DRYDEN

Body Break Preservation Shame Spirit
The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind’s great bribe.
JOHN DRYDEN

Act Generous Greatness Pleasure Secret
None are so busy as the fool and the knave.
JOHN DRYDEN

Busy Fools
Pity melts the mind to love.
JOHN DRYDEN

Love Mindset Pity
Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.
JOHN DRYDEN

Infidelity Mysterious Thinking
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.
JOHN DRYDEN

Death Fear Known
They live too long who happiness outlive.
JOHN DRYDEN

Happiness Live
He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Scene
But love’s a malady without a cure.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cure Love
But how can finite grasp Infinity?
JOHN DRYDEN

Finite Grasp Infinity
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Pearl Search
Presence of mind and courage in distress, Are more than arrives to procure success?
JOHN DRYDEN

Courage Mindset Presence Success
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
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

Boast Born Death End Journey Live Man Place Sincere
Love and Time with reverence use, Treat them like a parting friend: Nor the golden gifts refuse Which in youth sincere they send: For each year their price is more, And they less simple than before.
JOHN DRYDEN

Friendship Love Price Time Treat
Old as I am, for ladies’ love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.
JOHN DRYDEN

Myself Old Power Remember
Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brave Despair Happiness
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

Action Essence Fiction Human Poetry Story
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

Believe Children Direction Education Lost Man
Faith is to believe what you do not yet see: the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
JOHN DRYDEN

Believe Faith Grace Reward See Strength
Fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods, and wing their hasty flight to happier lands.
JOHN DRYDEN

Force Happiness Land Winter
Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Loss See Vice
We can never be grieved for their miseries who are thoroughly wicked, and have thereby justly called their calamities on themselves.
JOHN DRYDEN

Adversity Grief Misery Wicket
Virtue is her own reward.
JOHN DRYDEN

One Liner Reward Virtue
Griefs assured are felt before they come.
JOHN DRYDEN

Assurance Feeling Grief
Fame then was cheap, and the first comer sped; And they have kept it since by being dead.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cheap Death Fame
I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brown Easy Light Night

Fool that I was, upon my eagle’s wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.

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Fool that I was, upon my eagle’s wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.

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