Top 400 John Dryden Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “For danger levels man and brute And all are fellows in their need.”

— John Dryden

302. “Uncertain whose the narrowest span, – the clown unread, or half-read gentleman.”

— John Dryden

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303. “Pride – Lord of human kind.”

— John Dryden

304. “The unhappy man, who once has trail’d a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good.”

— John Dryden

305. “The propriety of thoughts and words, which are the hidden beauties of a play, are but confusedly judged in the vehemence of action.”

— John Dryden

306. “Ever a glutton, at another’s cost, But in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost.”

— John Dryden

307. “Keen appetite And quick digestion wait on you and yours.”

— John Dryden

308. “Swift was the race, but short the time to run.”

— John Dryden

309. “My right eye itches, some good luck is near.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

311. “Love either finds equality or makes it.”

— John Dryden

312. “I maintain, against the enemies of the stage, that patterns of piety, decently represented, may second the precepts.”

— John Dryden

313. “Having mourned your sin, for outward Eden lost, find paradise within.”

— John Dryden

314. “While I am compassed round With mirth, my soul lies hid in shades of grief, Whence, like the bird of night, with half-shut eyes, She peeps, and sickens at the sight of day.”

— John Dryden

315. “For lawful power is still superior found, When long driven back, at length it stands the ground.”

— John Dryden

316. “He look’d in years, yet in his years were seen A youthful vigor, and autumnal green.”

— John Dryden

317. “Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.”

— John Dryden

318. “The first is the law, the last prerogative.”

— John Dryden

319. “With odorous oil thy head and hair are sleek; And then thou kemb’st the tuzzes on thy cheek: Of these, my barbers take a costly care.”

— John Dryden

320. “Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.”

— John Dryden

321. “Bets at first were fool-traps, where the wise like spiders lay in ambush for the flies.”

— John Dryden

322. “The commendation of adversaries is the greatest triumph of a writer, because it never comes unless extorted.”

— John Dryden

323. “Blown roses hold their sweetness to the last.”

— John Dryden

324. “Discover the opinion of your enemies, which is commonly the truest; for they will give you no quarter, and allow nothing to complaisance.”

— John Dryden

325. “He made all countries where he came his own.”

— John Dryden

326. “Criticism is now become mere hangman’s work, and meddles only with the faults of authors ; nay, the critic is disgusted less with their absurdities than excellence ; and you cannot displease him more than in leaving him little room for his malice.”

— John Dryden

327. “And he, who servilely creeps after sense, Is safe, but ne’er will reach an excellence.”

— John Dryden

328. “Fiction is of the essence of poetry as well as of painting; there is a resemblance in one of human bodies, things, and actions which are not real, and in the other of a true story by fiction.”

— John Dryden

329. “They that possess the prince possess the laws.”

— John Dryden

330. “So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.”

— John Dryden

331. “Maintain your post: That’s all the fame you need; For ’tis impossible you should proceed.”

— John Dryden

332. “All authors to their own defects are blind.”

— John Dryden

333. “Accurst ambition, how dearly I have bought you.”

— John Dryden

334. “Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.”

— John Dryden

335. “Was there no milder way but the Small Pox, The very filth’ness of Pandora’s Box?”

— John Dryden

336. “But how can finite grasp Infinity?”

— John Dryden

337. “Arts and sciences in one and the same century have arrived at great perfection; and no wonder, since every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies; the work then, being pushed on by many hands, must go forward.”

— John Dryden

338. “As one that neither seeks, nor shuns his foe.”

— John Dryden

339. “Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections.”

— John Dryden

340. “So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

342. “Fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods, and wing their hasty flight to happier lands.”

— John Dryden

343. “Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.”

— John Dryden

344. “Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.”

— John Dryden

345. “They live too long who happiness outlive.”

— John Dryden

346. “An ugly woman in a rich habit set out with jewels nothing can become.”

— John Dryden

347. “Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.”

— John Dryden

348. “The winds are out of breath.”

— John Dryden

349. “Sculptors are obliged to follow the manners of the painters, and to make many ample folds, which are unsufferable hardness, and more like a rock than a natural garment.”

— John Dryden

350. “And that one hunting, which the Devil design’d For one fair female, lost him half the kind.”

— John Dryden