Poet John Dryden

John Dryden

Poems Quotes Books Biography Comments Images

John Dryden Quotes

Look around the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call to-day his own He who, secure within, can say, To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.
The gates of Hell are open night and day Smooth the descent, and easy is the way But, to return, and view the cheerful skies In this, the task and mighty labor lies.
Death in itself is nothing but we fear To be we know not what, we know not where.
Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are.
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.
A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.
Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare.
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Dreams are but interludes that fancy makes... Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little and who talk too much.
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little and who talk too much.
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call to-day his own: He who, secure within, can say, To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Beware of the fury of the patient man.
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Reason to rule but mercy to forgive The first is the law, the last prerogative.
You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
They think to little who talk to much.
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.
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.
How can finite grasp infinity
The conscience of a people is their power.

Write your comment about John Dryden

William Collins
S. K. Kelen

Poem of the day

Felicia Dorothea Hemans Poem
Night-Scene In Genoa
 by Felicia Dorothea Hemans

In Genoa, when the sunset gave
Its last warm purple to the wave,
No sound of war, no voice of fear,
Was heard, announcing danger near:
Though deadliest foes were there, whose hate
But slumber'd till its hour of fate,
Yet calmly, at the twilight's close,
Sunk the wide city to repose.
...
Read complete poem

Popular Poets