Quotes from John Dryden

What all your sex desire is Sovereignty

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well; the chiefest part of which is to observe those excellencies which delight a reasonable reader

Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.

Honor is but an empty bubble.

Beauty is nothing else but a just accord and mutual harmony of the members, animated by a healthful constitution.

My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.

Thoughts cannot form themselves in words so horrid As can express my guilt.

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.

When he spoke, what tender words he used! So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow, They melted as they fell.

A narrow mind begets obstinacy; we do not easily believe what we cannot see.

The idea of the painter and the sculptor is undoubtedly that perfect and excellent example of the mind, by imitation of which imagined form all things are represented which fall under human sight.

All heiresses are beautiful.

The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven.

Silence in times of suffering is the best.

When fate summons, monarchs must obey.

[Of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:] Here is God's plenty.

Rich the treasure,Sweet the pleasure—Sweet is pleasure after pain.

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.

Dead men tell no tales.

Here lies my wife: here let her lie!Now she's at rest, and so am I.

When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat;Yet, fool'd with hope, men favor the deceit;Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay.Tomorrow's falser than the former day.

Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees - As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.