John Dryden Quotes

• Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.

  John Dryden

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• Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative.

  John Dryden

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• My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires, My manhood, long misled by wandering fires, Followed false lights; and when their glimpse was gone My pride struck out new sparkles of her own… Good life be now my task: my doubts are done; (What more could fright my faith than Three in One?)

  John Dryden

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• For  truth has such a face and such a mien As to be loved needs only to be seen.

  John Dryden

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• And doomed to death, though fated not to die.

  John Dryden

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• O double sacrilege on things divine, To rob the relic, and deface the shrine!

  John Dryden

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• Her pencil drew whate’er her soul designed, And oft the happy draft surpassed the image in her mind.

  John Dryden

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• Freedom which in no other land will thrive, Freedom an English subject’s sole prerogative.

  John Dryden

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• Mute and magnificent, without a tear.

  John Dryden

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• Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.

  John Dryden

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• Farewell, too little, and too lately known, Whom I began to think and call my own.

  John Dryden

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• And this unpolished rugged verse I chose As fittest for discourse and nearest prose.

  John Dryden

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• But treason is not owned when ’tis descried; Successful crimes alone are justified.

  John Dryden

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• We loathe our manna, and we long for quails.

  John Dryden

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• And, dying, bless the hand that gave the blow.

  John Dryden

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• There is a pleasure sure, In being mad, that none but madmen know!

  John Dryden

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• But ’tis the talent of our English nation, Still to be plotting some new reformation.

  John Dryden

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• Rhyme is the rock on which thou art to wreck.

  John Dryden

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• Doeg, though without knowing how or why, Made still a blund’ring kind of melody; Spurred boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin, Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in; Free from all meaning, whether good or bad, And in one word, heroically mad.

  John Dryden

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• For lawful power is still superior found, When long driven back, at length it stands the ground.

  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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