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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

Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
JOHN DRYDEN

Bold Fear Greatness Mask
Murder may pass unpunished for a time, But tardy justice will overtake the crime.
JOHN DRYDEN

Crime Murder Punishment Time
Welcome, thou kind deceiver! Thou best of thieves; who, with an easy key, Dost open life, and, unperceived by us, Even steal us from ourselves.
JOHN DRYDEN

Best Kind Ourselves Steal
The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven.
JOHN DRYDEN

Gift Heaven Liberty Life Love
Take not away the life you cannot give: For all things have an equal right to live.
JOHN DRYDEN

Equality Life Live Right
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
Some of our philosophizing divines have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out God.
JOHN DRYDEN

Divine Faculty Force God Kind Man Philosophy
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

Heaven Praise Prayer Promise
He is a perpetual fountain of good sense.
JOHN DRYDEN

Fountain Goodness Sense
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
JOHN DRYDEN

Grace Known Order Place
By education most have been misled.
JOHN DRYDEN

Direction Education One Liner
All delays are dangerous in war.
JOHN DRYDEN

Dangerous Delay War
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
For those whom God to ruin has design’d, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
JOHN DRYDEN

Design God Mindset Ruin
Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.
JOHN DRYDEN

Authors Enthusiasm Expectation Truth
Many things impossible to thought have been by need to full perfection brought.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brought Impossible Need Perfection
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
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

Believe Children Direction Education Lost Man
Nor is the people’s judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
JOHN DRYDEN

Judgment People True
Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.
JOHN DRYDEN

Forgiveness Injury Wrong
Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother ten, Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies.
JOHN DRYDEN

Creation Earth Eyes Man Mom Sky Soft
The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun, Is Nature’s eye.
JOHN DRYDEN

Eyes Heaven Nature
He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Master Secret Servant Trust
More liberty begets desire of more; The hunger still increases with the store.
JOHN DRYDEN

Desire Hungry Liberty Store
Sculptors are obliged to follow the manners of the painters, and to make many ample folds, which are unsufferable hardness, and more like a rock than a natural garment.
JOHN DRYDEN

Follow Natural Obligation Paint Rock Sculptor
The bravest men are subject most to chance.
JOHN DRYDEN

Brave Chance Man Subject
Sure there’s contagion in the tears of friends.
JOHN DRYDEN

Friendship Tears

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.

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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.

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Popular Authors

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