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Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.

John Dryden

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

Criticism Revenge Writing
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
For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.
JOHN DRYDEN

Age Devour Pleasure Taste Youth
Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.
JOHN DRYDEN

Complain Leisure Light Suffering
Take not away the life you cannot give: For all things have an equal right to live.
JOHN DRYDEN

Equality Life Live Right
If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.
JOHN DRYDEN

Live Past Remember Thankful
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.
JOHN DRYDEN

Death Fear Known
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
Seas are the fields of combat for the winds; but when they sweep along some flowery coast, their wings move mildly, and their rage is lost.
JOHN DRYDEN

Lost Mild Rage Sea Wind
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
JOHN DRYDEN

Pain Pleasure Sweet
Many things impossible to thought have been by need to full perfection brought.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brought Impossible Need Perfection
Content with poverty, my soul I arm; And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
JOHN DRYDEN

Myself Poverty Soul Virtue Warm
Let Fortune empty her whole quiver on me, I have a soul that, like an ample shield, Can take in all, and verge enough for more; Fate was not mine, nor am I Fate’s: Souls know no conquerors.
JOHN DRYDEN

Empty Enough Fortune Myself Soul
He trudged along unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
JOHN DRYDEN

Thinking Unknown Whistle
Hushed as midnight silence.
JOHN DRYDEN

One Liner Silence
If by the people you understand the multitude, the hoi polloi, ’tis no matter what they think; they are sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong; their judgment is a mere lottery.
JOHN DRYDEN

Judgement People Thinking Understand Wrong
Self-defense is Nature’s eldest law.
JOHN DRYDEN

Defense Law Nature
The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun, Is Nature’s eye.
JOHN DRYDEN

Eyes Heaven Nature
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
JOHN DRYDEN

Decay Monarch Obedience Subject
Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Loss See Vice
Confidence is the feeling we have before knowing all the facts.
JOHN DRYDEN

Confidence Fact Known
Satire among the Romans, but not among the Greeks, was a bitter invective poem.
JOHN DRYDEN

Bitter Poem Satire
An hour will come, with pleasure to relate Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.
JOHN DRYDEN

Benefit Fate Pleasure Relate Sorrow Time
For those whom God to ruin has design’d, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Design God Mindset Ruin
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
He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Scene
Murder may pass unpunished for a time, But tardy justice will overtake the crime.
JOHN DRYDEN

Crime Murder Punishment Time

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.

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Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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