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Self-defense is Nature’s eldest law.

John Dryden

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

Eagle Fools Mount Myself Wings
Time glides with undiscover’d haste; The future but a length behind the past.
JOHN DRYDEN

Discover Future Glide Haste Length Past
Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brave Despair Happiness
Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Kind Man Vice Virtue
The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind’s great bribe.
JOHN DRYDEN

Act Generous Greatness Pleasure Secret
Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
JOHN DRYDEN

Choice Fate Love
If thou dost still retain the same ill habits, the same follies, too, still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.
JOHN DRYDEN

Bound Habit Slave Vice
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
Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
JOHN DRYDEN

Age Alone Enough Reason Strong Walk Youth
But love’s a malady without a cure.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cure Love
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
The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man.
JOHN DRYDEN

Death Man Thinking Virtue
There is a proud modesty in merit.
JOHN DRYDEN

Advantage Modesty Proud
Affability, mildness, tenderness, and a word which I would fain bring back to its original signification of virtue,–I mean good-nature,–are of daily use; they are the bread of mankind and staff of life.
JOHN DRYDEN

Life Man Origin Virtue Word
Riches cannot rescue from the grave, which claims alike the monarch and the slave.
JOHN DRYDEN

Claim Grave Rich Slave
And write whatever Time shall bring to pass With pens of adamant on plates of brass.
JOHN DRYDEN

Plate Time Writing

Self-defense is Nature’s eldest law.

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Self-defense is Nature’s eldest law.

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