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A good poet is no more like himself in a dull translation than his carcass would be to his living body.

— John Dryden

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Preface to Sylvae, or the Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies (1685).
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

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Love taught him shame, and shame, with love at strife,
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.

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Pains of love be sweeter far
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They say everything in the world is good for something.

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When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!

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Your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.

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A knockdown argument: 'tis but a word and a blow.

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Whistling to keep myself from being afraid.

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This is the porcelain clay of humankind.

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More quotes by John Dryden

Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.

Aureng-Zebe (1676)

Whate’er he did, was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please.

Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Love conquers all, and we must yield to Love.

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What passion cannot Music raise and quell?

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1687)

Whatever is, is in its causes just.

Œdipus (1679)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Dryden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.