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But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.

John Dryden

Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she’s at rest, and so am I.
JOHN DRYDEN

Lying Myself Wife
All empire is no more than power in trust.
JOHN DRYDEN

Empire Power Trust
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
JOHN DRYDEN

Grace Strength
Self-defense is Nature’s eldest law.
JOHN DRYDEN

Defense Law Nature
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
He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Scene
If passion rules, how weak does reason prove!
JOHN DRYDEN

Evidence Passion Reason Rule Weakness
Those who write ill, and they who ne’er durst write, Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.
JOHN DRYDEN

Criticism Revenge Writing
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
JOHN DRYDEN

Grace Known Order Place
The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Man Son Treat
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.
JOHN DRYDEN

Build Destroy
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
JOHN DRYDEN

Decay Monarch Obedience Subject
For all the happiness mankind can gain Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain.
JOHN DRYDEN

Happiness Kind Man Sadness
Welcome, thou kind deceiver! Thou best of thieves; who, with an easy key, Dost open life, and, unperceived by us, Even steal us from ourselves.
JOHN DRYDEN

Best Kind Ourselves Steal
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.
JOHN DRYDEN

Best Give Up Knowledge Nature Production True
Not sharp revenge, nor hell itself can find, A fiercer torment than a guilty mind, Which day and night doth dreadfully accuse, Condemns the wretch, and still the charge renews.
JOHN DRYDEN

Charge Mindset Revenge Sharp
I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brown Easy Light Night
I’m a little wounded, but I am not slain; I will lay me down to bleed a while. Then I’ll rise and fight again.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fight Myself Rise Wound
All authors to their own defects are blind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Author Blind Defect
Desire of greatness is a godlike sin.
JOHN DRYDEN

Desire God Greatness Sin
Many things impossible to thought have been by need to full perfection brought.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brought Impossible Need Perfection
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections.
JOHN DRYDEN

Affection Goodness Grace Principal
An horrible stillness first invades our ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fear Horrible Ourselves Silence Temptation
Every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another.
JOHN DRYDEN

Beautiful Language Oneself
Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
JOHN DRYDEN

Alone Day Happiness Live Man Myself Secure Worst
Fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods, and wing their hasty flight to happier lands.
JOHN DRYDEN

Force Happiness Land Winter
Honor is but an empty bubble.
JOHN DRYDEN

Empty Respect

But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.

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But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.

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Popular Authors

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