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Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

John Dryden

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

Brown Easy Light Night
Satire is a kind of poetry in which human vices are reprehended.
JOHN DRYDEN

Human Kind Poetry Satire Vice
I am resolved to grow fat and look young till forty, and then slip out of the world with the first wrinkle and the reputation of five-and-twenty.
JOHN DRYDEN

Growth Myself Reputation Young
Repartee is the soul of conversation.
JOHN DRYDEN

Conversation One Liner Soul
Old as I am, for ladies’ love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.
JOHN DRYDEN

Myself Old Power Remember
Good sense and good-nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good-nature, by which I mean beneficence and candor, is the product of right reason.
JOHN DRYDEN

Goodness Ignorance Nature Reason Right World
Merit challenges envy.
JOHN DRYDEN

Advantage Jealous One Liner
Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpass’d; The next, in majesty; in both the last. The force of Nature could no further go; To make a third, she join’d the former two.
JOHN DRYDEN

Age Distant Force Herself Nature Poet
Treason is greatest where trust is greatest.
JOHN DRYDEN

Greatness Treason Trust
And plenty makes us poor.
JOHN DRYDEN

Poor
Plots, true or false, are necessary things, To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fake King Necessary Ruin True
If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.
JOHN DRYDEN

Live Past Remember Thankful
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
JOHN DRYDEN

Beautiful Dangerous Surface Way
He trudged along unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
JOHN DRYDEN

Thinking Unknown Whistle
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fools One Liner Patriot
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
Secret guilt is by silence revealed.
JOHN DRYDEN

Guilty Reveal Secret Silence
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
Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
JOHN DRYDEN

Care Destroy Happiness Man Thinking
There is a pleasure in being mad, which none but madmen know.
JOHN DRYDEN

Known Mad Pleasure
Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
JOHN DRYDEN

Elegant Flower Heaven Western
An horrible stillness first invades our ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fear Horrible Ourselves Silence Temptation
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.
JOHN DRYDEN

Courage Growth Heart
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
Among our crimes oblivion may be set.
JOHN DRYDEN

Crime Oblivion
But love’s a malady without a cure.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cure Love
What passion cannot music raise and quell!
JOHN DRYDEN

Music Passion Raise

Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

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Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.

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