167 Famous Quotes by John Dryden
8/9/1631 - 5/12/1700
Also Known As:
Dryden, John
Glorious John
Professions:
Information:
About John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet Laureate in 1668.
The winds that never moderation knew,
Afraid to blow too much, too faintly blew;
Or out of breath with joy, could not enlarge
Their straighten'd lungs or conscious of their charge.
Wind
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Astroea Redux (l. 242)
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Hard features every bungler can command:
To draw true beauty shows a master's hand.
Painting
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: To Mr. Lee, on his Alexander (l. 53)
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Thespis, the first professor of our art,
At country wakes snug ballads from a cart.
Ballads
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Prologue to Sophonisba
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At every close she made, th' attending throng
Replied, and bore the burden of the song:
So just, so small, yet in so sweet a note,
It seemed the music melted in the throat.
Singing
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Flower and the Leaf (l. 197)
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Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.
Sun
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Absalom and Achitophel (st. 1, l. 268)
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The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun,
Is Nature's eye.
Sun
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: The Story of Acis, Polyphemus, and Galatea (l. 165), from Ovid "Metamorphoses", bk. xiii
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Skill'd in the globe and sphere, he gravely stands,
And, with his compass, measures seas and lands.
Navigation
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Sixth Satire of Juvenal (l. 760)
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For those whom God to ruin has designed
He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
Insanity
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Fables--The Hind and the Panther (pt. III, l. 2,387)
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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results.
Insanity
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Spanish Friar (act II, st. 1)
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The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees.
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays
Supreme in state; and in three more decays.
Oak
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Palamon and Arcite (bk. III, l. 1.058)
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The welcome news is in the letter found;
The carrier's not commission'd to expound;
It speaks itself, and what it does contain,
In all things needful to be known is plain.
Post
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Religio Laici (l. 366)
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Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with awe,
And stupid at the wondrous things he saw,
Surpassing common faith, transgressing nature's law.
Wonders
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Theodore and Honoria (l. 217)
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Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
Misfortune
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Alexander's Feast (l. 77)
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When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.
[Lat., Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte.]
Misfortune
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Alexander's Feast (l. 77)
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Whatever he did, was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please.
Grace
Quotes, by John Dryden , Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 27)
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Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own; he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Contentment
Quotes, by John Dryden
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