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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.

— John Dryden Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote notes doubts about whether John Dryden really said this.

Source: "Authorship", p. 56 (Prologue to Lee’s Cesar Borgia)
Work: Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson, 1880
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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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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Tyrannick Love (1669)

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.

The Works of Virgil (1697)

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.