Top 400 John Dryden Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “And that one hunting, which the Devil design’d For one fair female, lost him half the kind.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

353. “If thou dost still retain the same ill habits, the same follies, too, still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.”

— John Dryden

354. “Seek not thyself without thyself to find.”

— John Dryden

355. “All the learn’d are cowards by profession.”

— John Dryden

356. “But how can finite grasp Infinity?”

— John Dryden

357. “Ev’n wit’s a burthen, when it talks too long.”

— John Dryden

358. “Virtue is her own reward.”

— John Dryden

359. “It’s a hard world, neighbors, if a man’s oath must be his master.”

— John Dryden

360. “Let cheerfulness on happy fortune wait.”

— John Dryden

361. “Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle.”

— John Dryden

362. “A good conscience is a port which is landlocked on every side, where no winds can possibly invade. There a man may not only see his own image, but that of his Maker, clearly reflected from the undisturbed waters.”

— John Dryden

363. “Revealed religion first informed thy sight, and reason saw not till faith sprung to light.”

— John Dryden

364. “Griefs assured are felt before they come.”

— John Dryden

365. “To take up half on trust, and half to try, Name it not faith but bungling bigotry.”

— John Dryden

366. “Great souls forgive not injuries till time has put their enemies within their power, that they may show forgiveness is their own.”

— John Dryden

367. “Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors.”

— John Dryden

368. “Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer: Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.”

— John Dryden

369. “Interest makes all seem reason that leads to it.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

371. “A knock-down argument; ’tis but a word and a blow.”

— John Dryden

372. “We can never be grieved for their miseries who are thoroughly wicked, and have thereby justly called their calamities on themselves.”

— John Dryden

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

— John Dryden

374. “The bravest men are subject most to chance.”

— John Dryden

375. “If one must be rejected, one succeed, make him my lord within whose faithful breast is fixed my image, and who loves me best.”

— John Dryden

376. “They, who would combat general authority with particular opinion, must first establish themselves a reputation of understanding better than other men.”

— John Dryden

377. “Virtue without success is a fair picture shown by an ill light; but lucky men are favorites of heaven; all own the chief, when fortune owns the cause.”

— John Dryden

378. “Some of our philosophizing divines have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out God.”

— John Dryden

379. “What precious drops are those, Which silently each other’s track pursue, Bright as young diamonds in their faint dew?”

— John Dryden

380. “We by art unteach what Nature taught.”

— John Dryden

381. “I learn to pity woes so like my own.”

— John Dryden

382. “Two if’s scarce make one possibility.”

— John Dryden

383. “Joy rul’d the day, and Love the night.”

— John Dryden

384. “Railing in other men may be a crime, But ought to pass for mere instinct in him: Instinct he follows and no further knows, For to write verse with him is to transprose.”

— John Dryden

385. “Who thinks all Science, as all Virtue, vain; Who counts Geometry and numbers Toys...”

— John Dryden

386. “Virgil is so exact in every word, that none can be changed but for a worse; nor any one removed from its place, but the harmony will be altered. He pretends sometimes to trip; but it is only to make you think him in danger of a fall, when he is most secure.”

— John Dryden

387. “Pity only on fresh objects stays, but with the tedious sight of woes decays.”

— John Dryden

388. “For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?”

— John Dryden

389. “He with a graceful pride, While his rider every hand survey’d, Sprung loose, and flew into an escapade; Not moving forward, yet with every bound Pressing, and seeming still to quit his ground.”

— John Dryden

390. “These are the effects of doting age, – vain doubts and idle cares and over caution.”

— John Dryden

391. “Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.”

— John Dryden

392. “Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.”

— John Dryden

393. “As when the dove returning bore the mark Of earth restored to the long labouring ark; The relics of mankind, secure at rest, Oped every window to receive the guest, And the fair bearer of the message bless’d.”

— John Dryden

394. “Lucky men are favorites of Heaven.”

— John Dryden

395. “When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.”

— John Dryden

396. “For mysterious things of faith, rely on the proponent, Heaven’s authority.”

— John Dryden

397. “Riches cannot rescue from the grave, which claims alike the monarch and the slave.”

— John Dryden

398. “Sure there’s contagion in the tears of friends.”

— John Dryden

399. “Good Heaven, whose darling attribute we find is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind, abhors the cruel.”

— John Dryden

400. “They first condemn that first advised the ill.”

— John Dryden