Top 400 John Dryden Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “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

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

— John Dryden

303. “Men are but children of a larger growth.”

— 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 province of the soul is large enough to fill up every cranny of your time, and leave you much to answer for if one wretch be damned by your neglect.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

307. “If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in some sort parties; for, since they say the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure that they will be impartial judges?”

— John Dryden

308. “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

309. “So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

316. “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

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

325. “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

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

— John Dryden

327. “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

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

335. “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

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

338. “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

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

343. “For your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.”

— John Dryden

344. “The winds are out of breath.”

— John Dryden

345. “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

346. “Repentance is but want of power to sin.”

— John Dryden

347. “Few know the use of life before ’tis past.”

— John Dryden

348. “More liberty begets desire of more; The hunger still increases with the store.”

— John Dryden

349. “Even kings but play; and when their part is done, some other, worse or better, mounts the throne.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden