Top 400 John Dryden Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “War is the trade of kings.”

— John Dryden

152. “But when to sin our biased nature leans, The careful Devil is still at hand with means; And providently pimps for ill desires.”

— John Dryden

153. “Content with poverty, my soul I arm; And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.”

— John Dryden

154. “With how much ease believe we what we wish!”

— John Dryden

155. “Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.”

— John Dryden

Featured in: Strong Quotes

156. “Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.”

— John Dryden

157. “The Fates but only spin the coarser clue; The finest of the wool is left for you.”

— John Dryden

158. “Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative. Life is an adventure in forgiveness.”

— John Dryden

159. “Nor is the people’s judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.”

— John Dryden

160. “The perverseness of my fate is such that he’s not mine because he’s mine too much.”

— John Dryden

161. “Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes; When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes.”

— John Dryden

162. “Genius must be born, it can’t be taught.”

— John Dryden

163. “For every inch that is not fool, is rogue.”

— John Dryden

164. “I trade both with the living and the dead, for the enrichment of our native language.”

— John Dryden

165. “A lazy frost, a numbness of the mind.”

— John Dryden

166. “By viewing nature, nature’s handmaid art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow: Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.”

— John Dryden

167. “He wants worth who dares not praise a foe.”

— John Dryden

168. “If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.”

— John Dryden

169. “The people’s prayer, the glad diviner’s theme, The young men’s vision, and the old men’s dream!”

— John Dryden

170. “Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries, See the Furies arise!”

— John Dryden

171. “Ill news is wing’d with fate, and flies apace.”

— John Dryden

172. “Raw in the fields the rude militia swarms, Mouth without hands; maintained at vast expense, In peace a charge, in war a weak defence.”

— John Dryden

173. “Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure.”

— John Dryden

174. “Every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies.”

— John Dryden

175. “Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.”

— John Dryden

176. “The wretched have no friends.”

— John Dryden

177. “Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.”

— John Dryden

178. “For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.”

— John Dryden

179. “Thou tyrant, tyrant Jealousy, Thou tyrant of the mind!”

— John Dryden

180. “Pleasure never comes sincere to man; but lent by heaven upon hard usury.”

— John Dryden

181. “An hour will come, with pleasure to relate Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.”

— John Dryden

182. “There is a proud modesty in merit.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

184. “No government has ever been, or can ever be, wherein time-servers and blockheads will not be uppermost.”

— John Dryden

185. “A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.”

— John Dryden

186. “The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience, not in enterprises which the poets call heroic, and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride and worldly honor.”

— John Dryden

187. “Since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in poetry or painting, must produce a much greater; for both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature.”

— John Dryden

188. “Freedom which in no other land will thrive, Freedom an English subject’s sole prerogative.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

190. “Fame then was cheap, and the first comer sped; And they have kept it since by being dead.”

— John Dryden

191. “Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.”

— John Dryden

192. “The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

194. “A happy genius is the gift of nature.”

— John Dryden

195. “The true Amphitryon is the Amphitryon where we dine.”

— John Dryden

196. “Treason is greatest where trust is greatest.”

— John Dryden

197. “She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.”

— John Dryden

198. “Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.”

— John Dryden

199. “Old age creeps on us ere we think it nigh.”

— John Dryden

200. “Let Fortune empty her whole quiver on me, I have a soul that, like an ample shield, Can take in all, and verge enough for more; Fate was not mine, nor am I Fate’s: Souls know no conquerors.”

— John Dryden