John Dryden Quotes - Page 16

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• Imitation pleases, because it affords matter for inquiring into the truth or falsehood of imitation, by comparing its likeness or unlikeness with the original.

  John Dryden

  Matter, Inquiring, Imitation

  John Dryden (1800). “The Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected: with Notes and Illustrations; an Acount of the Life and Writing of the Author, Grounded on Original and Authentick Documents; and a Collection of His Letters, the Greater Part of which Has Never Before Been Published”, p.323

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• Heroic poetry has ever been esteemed the greatest work of human nature.

  John Dryden

  Poetry, Heroic, Human Nature

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• For thee, sweet month; the groves green liveries wear.
  If not the first, the fairest of the year;
  For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours,
  And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers.
  When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun
  The sultry tropic fears, and moves more slowly on.

  John Dryden

  Sweet, Flower, Moving

  John Dryden, Sir Walter Scott (1808). “The works of John Dryden now first collected ...”, p.273

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• And nobler is a limited command, Given by the love of all your native land, Than a successive title, long and dark, Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's Ark.

  John Dryden

  Country, Dark, Land

  John Dryden, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (2007). “Dryden: Selected Poems”, p.181, Pearson Education

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• Rich the treasure, Sweet the pleasure,- Sweet is pleasure after pain.

  John Dryden

  Sweet, Pain, Treasure

  'Alexander's Feast' (1697) l. 57

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• He wants worth who dares not praise a foe.

  John Dryden

  Want, Praise, Dare

  John Dryden (1701). “The Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas....: Now First Collected Together, and Corrected from the Roginals”, p.392

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• The Fates but only spin the coarser clue; The finest of the wool is left for you.

  John Dryden

  Fate, Wool, Clue

  John Dryden (1808). “The works of John Dryden: now first collected in eighteen volumes. Illustrated with notes, historical, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author”, p.296

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• Genius must be born, it can't be taught.

  John Dryden

  Genius, Taught, Born

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• Nature meant me
  A wife, a silly, harmless, household dove,
  Fond without art, and kind without deceit.

  John Dryden

  Art, Nature, Silly

  "All for Love".

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• The elephant is never won by anger; nor must that man who would reclaim a lion take him by the teeth.

  John Dryden

  Anger, Men, Elephants

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• Genius must be born, and never can be taught.

  John Dryden

  Taught, Genius, Born

  John Dryden (1868). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.256

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• A fiery soul, which working out its way,
  Fretted the pygmy-body to decay:
  And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.
  A daring pilot in extremity;
  Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high
  He sought the storms...

  John Dryden

  Work Out, Soul, Storm

  John Dryden, “Absalom And Achitophel”

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• Virgil, above all poets, had a stock which I may call almost inexhaustible, of figurative, elegant, and sounding words.

  John Dryden

  May, Poet, Elegant

  John Dryden (1830). “Virgil: the Eclogues”, p.231

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• Music, Music for a while Shall all your cares beguile. Alexander's Feast

  John Dryden

  Care

  1692 Oedipus (with Nathaniel Lee).

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• How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! Tosparethegrossness ofthenames, and to dothe thing yet moreseverely, isto drawa full face, and tomake the nose and cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of shadowing.

  John Dryden

  Men, Faces, Fool

  1693 A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire, 'The Art of Satire'.

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• Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.

  John Dryden

  Jealousy, Soul, Jaundice

  John Dryden, Samuel Johnson (1822). “The Poems of John Dryden”

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• From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, But save me most from my petitioners. Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can crave.

  John Dryden

  Years, Heaven, Plot

  1681 Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.985-8.

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• So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.

  John Dryden

  God, Men, Devil

  John Dryden (1701). “Poems on Various Occasions: And Translations from Several Authors”, p.10

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• Music is inarticulate poesy.

  John Dryden

  Music, Inarticulate, Music Is

  "Tyrannick Love, or The Royal Martyr". Tragedy by John Dryden (Preface), 1670.

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• War is a trade of kings.

  John Dryden

  Kings, War, Trade

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• That, if the Gentiles, (whom no Law inspir'd,)
  By Nature did what was by Law requir'd;
  They, who the written Rule and never known,
  Were to themselves both Rule and Law alone:
  To Natures plain Indictment they shall plead;
  And, by their Conscience, be condemn'd or freed.

  John Dryden

  Law, Indictment, Gentiles

  John Dryden (1972). “The Works of John Dryden, Volume II: Poems, 1681-1684”, p.115, Univ of California Press

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• One of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced.

  John Dryden

  Sublime, Age, Noble

  John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.2797, Delphi Classics

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• Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease.

  John Dryden

  Life, Ease, Prodigals

  'Absalom and Achitophel' (1681) pt. 1, l. 165

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• With how much ease believe we what we wish!

  John Dryden

  Believe, Wish, Ease

  Nathaniel Lee, John Dryden, Arthur Murphy, George Farquhar, Hannah Cowley (1815). “Alexander the Great, Or, the Rival Queens. A Tragedy”

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• Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?

  John Dryden

  Birthday, Long, World

  Juvenal, John Dryden, Nahum Tate, Persius, Richard Duke (1713). “The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis: and of Aulus Persius Flaccus”, p.210

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