Quotes from John Dryden

For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.

Some of our philosophizing divines have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out God.

Railing and praising were his usual themes; and both showed his judgment in extremes. Either over violent or over civil, so everyone to him was either god or devil.

Take the good the gods provide thee.

It is sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty.

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.

Good sense and good nature are never separated; and good nature is the product of right reason.

He is a perpetual fountain of good sense.

Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.

Present joys are more to flesh and blood Than a dull prospect of a distant good.

'Tis a good thing to laugh at any rate; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness.

Honor is but an empty bubble.

And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd For one fair female, lost him half the kind.

Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.

Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

For they conquer who believe they can.

Pains of love be sweeter far than all other pleasures are.

The conscience of a people is their power.

Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine, The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not heaven itself upon the past has power; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

Thou tyrant, tyrant Jealousy, Thou tyrant of the mind!

And plenty makes us poor.

Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.

Revealed religion first informed thy sight, and reason saw not till faith sprung to light.

The World to Bacon does not only owe it's present knowledge, but its future too.