John Dryden Quotes

• Virtue’s his path; but sometimes ’tis too narrow For his vast soul; and then he starts out wide, And bounds into a vice.

  John Dryden

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• Then he defies the world and bids it pass.

  John Dryden

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• Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below.

  John Dryden

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• Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame In keen iambics, but mild anagram: Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command Some peaceful province in Acrostic Land. There thou mayest wings display and altars raise, And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.

  John Dryden

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• The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, But Shadwell never deviates into sense. Some beams of wit on other souls may fall, Strike through and make a lucid interval; But Shadwell’s genuine night admits no ray, His rising fogs prevail upon the day.

  John Dryden

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• Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he Who stands confirmed in full stupidity.

  John Dryden

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• All human things are subject to decay, And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.

  John Dryden

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• A propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other terms, thought and words elegantly adapted to the subject.

  John Dryden

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• Virgil and Horace [were] the severest writers of the severest age.

  John Dryden

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• They, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men.

  John Dryden

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• 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

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• Sure the poet…spewed up a good lump of clotted nonsense at once.

  John Dryden

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• So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.

  John Dryden

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• The very Janus of poets; he wears almost everywhere two faces; and you have scarce begun to admire the one, ere you despise the other.

  John Dryden

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• I am to be married within these three days; married past redemption.

  John Dryden

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• Thou strong seducer, opportunity!

  John Dryden

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• Forgiveness to the injured does belong; But they ne’er pardon, who have done the wrong.

  John Dryden

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• I am as free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran.

  John Dryden

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• All delays are dangerous in war.

  John Dryden

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• And he, who servilely creeps after sense, Is safe, but ne’er will reach an excellence.

  John Dryden

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John Dryden (201)

Birth:	9th August, 1631
Death:	1st May, 1700
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Playwright, Poet

About

John Dryden was born in Aldwincle, Thrapston, Northamptonshire, England. He was an English poet, literary critic and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. He earned a BA degree from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1654. He wrote several poems include: Annus Mirabilis, Absalom and Achitophel, The Medall, MacFlecknoe, The Hind and the Panther, Eleonora, and Fables Ancient and Modern. He wrote several plays include: The Wild Gallant, The Indian Emperour, Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, Tyrannick Love, The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, Marriage A-la-Mode, Aureng-Zebe, All for Love, Oedipus, Don Sebastian, Amphitryon, and Love Triumphant.

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