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Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.

John Dryden

Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own web from their own entrails spin; And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch.
JOHN DRYDEN

Eyes Feeling Ourselves Soul Tender Togetherness Touch
Nor is the people’s judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
JOHN DRYDEN

Judgment People True
So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.
JOHN DRYDEN

Death Dreams Heaven Herself Life Success
Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.
JOHN DRYDEN

Body Break Preservation Shame Spirit
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
JOHN DRYDEN

Bound Divison Greatness Intelligence Mad
They live too long who happiness outlive.
JOHN DRYDEN

Happiness Live
All flowers will droop in the absence of the sun that waked their sweets.
JOHN DRYDEN

Absence Flower Sun Sweet Wake Up
While I am compassed round With mirth, my soul lies hid in shades of grief, Whence, like the bird of night, with half-shut eyes, She peeps, and sickens at the sight of day.
JOHN DRYDEN

Day Eyes Round Shade Sight Soul
The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man.
JOHN DRYDEN

Death Man Thinking Virtue
He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Master Secret Servant Trust
It is a madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because in herself she is nothing, can rule nothing, but is ruled by prudence.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fortune Madness Prudence Rule
Pride – Lord of human kind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Human Kind Pride
For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
JOHN DRYDEN

Bound Drink Food Live Power Thinking
Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.
JOHN DRYDEN

Complain Leisure Light Suffering
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections.
JOHN DRYDEN

Affection Goodness Grace Principal
Virtue is her own reward.
JOHN DRYDEN

One Liner Reward Virtue
We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.
JOHN DRYDEN

Chance Hot Iron Leisure
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
They think too little who talk too much.
JOHN DRYDEN

Talk Thinking
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
More liberty begets desire of more; The hunger still increases with the store.
JOHN DRYDEN

Desire Hungry Liberty Store
When I consider life, ’tis all a cheat; Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit; Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay. Tomorrow’s falser than the former day.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cheat Day False Fools Life
The winds are out of breath.
JOHN DRYDEN

Breathe Wind
When we view elevated ideas of Nature, the result of that view is admiration, which is always the cause of pleasure.
JOHN DRYDEN

Ideas Nature Pleasure View
To die for faction is a common evil, But to be hanged for nonsense is the devil.
JOHN DRYDEN

Common Death Devil Evil
Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
JOHN DRYDEN

Degree River Sea
Repartee is the soul of conversation.
JOHN DRYDEN

Conversation One Liner Soul

Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.

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Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.

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Popular Authors

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