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John Dryden Quotes

1631–1700 England

John Dryden (19 August [O.S. 9 August] 1631 – 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.

England
Essayists
Playwrights
Poets
Translators

Also known as: Dryden

Random John Dryden quote

537 quotes

Thy name, to Phoebus and the muses known,
Shall in the front of ev’ry page be shown.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Autumnal heat declines,
Ere heat is quite decay’d, or cold begun.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

But more have been by avarice opprest,
And heaps of money crowded in the chest.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

For should you to extortion be inclined,
Your cruel guilt will little booty find.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Like a miser ’midst his store,
Who grasps and grasps till he can hold no more.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

From hence the greatest part of ills descend,
When lust of getting more will have no end.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

I fought and fell like one, but death deceived me:
I wanted weight of feeble Moors upon me,
To crush my soul out.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

They follow their undaunted king;
Crowd through their gates; and, in the fields of light,
The shocking squadrons meet in mortal fight.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Two battles your auspicious cause has won;
Thy sword can perfect what it has begun.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

He to the town return’d,
Attended by the chiefs who fought the field,
Now friendly mix’d, and in one troop compell’d.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

The Grecians rally, and their powers unite;
With fury charge us, and renew the fight.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Would you the advantage of the fight delay
If, striking first, you were to win the day?

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Age has not yet
So shrunk my sinews, or so chill’d my veins,
But conscious virtue in my breast remains.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here,
Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

The vain endurances of life,
And they who most perform’d, and promised less,
Ev’n Short and Hobbes, forsook th’ unequal strife.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

That good man, who drank the pois’nous draught
With mind serene, and could not wish to see
His vile accuser drink as deep as he.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

The unhappy man who once has trail’d a pen
Lives not to please himself, but other men;
Is always drudging with his life and blood,
Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

His friends beheld, and pity’d him in vain,
For what advice can ease a lover’s pain?
Absence, the best expedient they could find,
Might save the fortune, if not cure the mind.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Such is the poet’s lot: what happier fate
Does on the works of grave historians wait!
More time they spend, in-greater toils engage:
Their volumes swell beyond the thousandth page.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Why asks he what avails him not in fight,
And would but cumber and retard his flight,
In which his only excellence is placed?
You give him death that interrupt his haste.

Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Dryden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.