Quotes from John Dryden

And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.

How can finite grasp infinity

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.

Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.

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

Reason to rule but mercy to forgive The first is the law, the last prerogative.

Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.

The conscience of a people is their power.

The most may err as grossly as the few.

The people have a right supremeTo make their kings, for Kings are made for them.All Empire is no more than Pow'r in Trust,Which when resum'd, can be no longer just.Successionm for the general good design'd,In its own wrong a Nation cannot bind.

They think too little who talk too much.

Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.

We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search for truth; it is their common method to take on trust what they help distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity.

We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.

You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.

Beware the fury of a patient man.

Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.

We first make our habits, then our habits make us.

I am sore wounded but not slain I will lay me down and bleed a while And then rise up to fight again

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below.

Great wits are to madness near allied And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare.