Whate’er he did, was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please.
Quotes from Absalom and Achitophel — John Dryden
1631–1700 England
33 quotes
All empire is no more than power in trust.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
And all to leave, what with his toil he won
To that unfeathered two-legged thing, a son.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
For every inch that is not fool, is rogue.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Better one suffer, than a nation grieve.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Great wits are sure to madness near alli'd.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin, or to rule the state.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
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Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.
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Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Thus in a pageant-show a plot is made;
And peace itself is war in masquerade.
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His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleas'd with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Dryden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.