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 DRYDENDreams are but interludes that fancy makes… Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
More John Dryden Quotes
-
-
As one that neither seeks, nor shuns his foe.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Sure there is none but fears a future state; And when the most obdurate swear they do not, Their trembling hearts belie their boasting tongues.
JOHN DRYDEN -
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 -
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
JOHN DRYDEN -
By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
JOHN DRYDEN -
And plenty makes us poor.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies.
JOHN DRYDEN -
If passion rules, how weak does reason prove!
JOHN DRYDEN -
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 -
Murder may pass unpunished for a time, But tardy justice will overtake the crime.
JOHN DRYDEN -
The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.
JOHN DRYDEN -
And write whatever Time shall bring to pass With pens of adamant on plates of brass.
JOHN DRYDEN -
None would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; And, from the dregs of life, think to receive, What the first sprightly running could not give.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Love and Time with reverence use, Treat them like a parting friend: Nor the golden gifts refuse Which in youth sincere they send: For each year their price is more, And they less simple than before.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Honor is but an empty bubble.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Trust on and think To-morrow will repay; To-morrow’s falser than the former day; Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blest With some new Joys, cuts off what we possest.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets;Jonson was theVirgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Treason is greatest where trust is greatest.
JOHN DRYDEN -
A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into truth.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.
JOHN DRYDEN -
But love’s a malady without a cure.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Politicians neither love nor hate.
JOHN DRYDEN -
For they can conquer who believe they can.
JOHN DRYDEN -
Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer: Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.
JOHN DRYDEN