Quotes & Sayings About Dryden

O freedom, first delight of human kind! — John Dryden

Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught. — John Dryden

They that possess the prince possess the laws. — John Dryden

Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul. — John Dryden

I am as free as nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran. — John Dryden

Hushed as midnight silence. — John Dryden

It was difficult to explain the concept of a party pooper to somebody who didn't really get the concept of a party — Delphine Dryden

Prodigious actions may as well be done, by weaver's issue, as the prince's son. — John Dryden

Beauty is nothing else but a just accord and mutual harmony of the members, animated by a healthful constitution. — John Dryden

If passion rules, how weak does reason prove! — John Dryden

Whatever is, is in its causes just;
But purblind man
Sees but a part o' th' chain; the nearest link;
His eyes not carrying to that equal beam
That poises all above. — John Dryden

The gods, (if gods to goodness are inclined If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert! — John Dryden

The greater part performed achieves the less. — John Dryden

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

A lazy frost, a numbness of the mind. — John Dryden

Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. — John Dryden

Uncertain whose the narrowest span,
the clown unread, or half-read gentleman. — John Dryden

From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: When nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, 'Arise, ye more than dead!' Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man. — John Dryden

War is the trade of Kings. — John Dryden

Self-defense is Nature's eldest law. — John Dryden

Pains of love be sweeter far than all other pleasures are. — John Dryden

Because the demands on the goalie are mostly mental, it means that for a goalie the biggest enemy is himself. Not a puck, not a opponent, not a quirk of size or style. The stress and anxiety he feels when he plays, the fear of failing, the fear of being embarrassed, the fear of being physically hurt, all symptoms of his position, in constant ebb and flow, but never disappearing. The successful goalie understands these neuroses, accept them, and put them under control. The unsuccessful goalie is distracted by them, his mind in knots. His body quickly follows. — Ken Dryden

... he would apologize. He would say all the right things. But he just didn't get it. The next time, nothing would have changed. — Delphine Dryden

In the fantasy I spun for myself that night before falling asleep, those deep dark secrets were revealed. That simple touch became a violent embrace, worthy of any bodice-ripper. There were a certain number of gleeful perversions committed on Ivan's battered leather sofa. And at some point in the fantasy, Ivan was a vampire, because I was sort of weird that way. He was a real, Gothic-style, Bram Stoker sort of vampire who bit people as a metaphor for having dubious-consent, alpha-male sex with them, I should point out. None of your modern, sensitive vampires for me. I appreciated the classics. — Delphine Dryden

He called it taking, but I felt as though he were giving me these things, these actions, like pieces of himself. Challenging me to receive these odd gifts, because they were all he had to give. His attention, his regard. His respect, which was the strangest thing of all, because I had expected to feel degraded at some point in all this and instead I felt valued beyond measure. Cherished. Strong. — Delphine Dryden

When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay:
To-morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possesst. — John Dryden

It is sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. — John Dryden

Dancing is the poetry of the foot. — John Dryden

I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night. — John Dryden

Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. — John Dryden

Long pains, with use of bearing, are half eased. — John Dryden

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

And love's the noblest frailty of the mind. — John Dryden

Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own web from their own entrails spin; And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such, That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch. — John Dryden

For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think? — John Dryden

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

Seas are the fields of combat for the winds; but when they sweep along some flowery coast, their wings move mildly, and their rage is lost. — John Dryden

For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind. — John Dryden

The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race. — John Dryden

I was constantly being around artists and Bohemian types. — Spencer Dryden

Having mourned your sin, for outward Eden lost, find paradise within. — John Dryden

When bounteous autumn rears her head, he joys to pull the ripened pear. — John Dryden

The model for an NHL without fighting is right there in front of us. The [playoffs are] the time of year that fans love best; when the best hockey is played ... [The] enforcers don't play. Even mini-enforcers ... remain on the bench. Teams and coaches can't afford anything stupid and unpredictable ... With no one to fight back for them, players go harder into the corners, more determinedly to the front of the net. If they want to fire up the crowd and their teammates, they have to do it themselves. And in the playoffs, they do. — Ken Dryden

What I have left is from my native spring; I've still a heart that swells, in scorn of fate, And lifts me to my banks. — John Dryden

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

Politicians neither love nor hate. — John Dryden

They first condemn that first advised the ill. — John Dryden

Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies. — John Dryden

He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit. — John Dryden

Love is love's reward. — John Dryden

Thoughts cannot form themselves in words so horrid As can express my guilt. — John Dryden

By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man. — John Dryden

There is a pleasure sure
In being mad, which none but madmen know.
Dryden, The Spanish Friar II, i — Gerald Durrell

Let those find fault whose wit's so very small, They've need to show that they can think at all; Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below. Fops may have leave to level all they can; As pigmies would be glad to lop a man. Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light, We scarce could know they live, but that they bite. — John Dryden

In God 'tis glory: And when men aspire,
'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire. — John Dryden

Old age creeps on us ere we think it nigh. — John Dryden

For lawful power is still superior found, When long driven back, at length it stands the ground. — John Dryden

Fools are more hard to conquer than persuade. — John Dryden

Light sufferings give us leisure to complain. — John Dryden

Successful crimes alone are justified. — John Dryden

Trust reposed in noble natures obliges them the more. — John Dryden

Um...we should have fewer pants on. This would be a great pants-free situation. — Delphine Dryden

Be secret and discreet; the fairy favors are lost when not concealed. — John Dryden

None are so busy as the fool and the knave. — John Dryden

So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade. — John Dryden

He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master — John Dryden

Genius must be born, it can't be taught. — John Dryden

Night came, but unattended with repose.
Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close.
Alone and black she came; no friendly stars arose. — John Dryden

Bets at first were fool-traps, where the wise like spiders lay in ambush for the flies. — John Dryden

The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one. — John Dryden

When he spoke, what tender words he used! So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow, They melted as they fell. — John Dryden

And write whatever Time shall bring to pass
With pens of adamant on plates of brass. — John Dryden

Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant. He is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or, at least shut up in fewer words. — John Dryden

These are the effects of doting age,
vain doubts and idle cares and over caution. — John Dryden

It was the kind of light blow that is exchanged without notice or consequence hundreds of times in a game. — Ken Dryden

I feel my sinews slackened with the fright, and a cold sweat trills down all over my limbs, as if I were dissolving into water. — John Dryden

Fool that I was, upon my eagle's wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me. — John Dryden

Confidence is the feeling we have before knowing all the facts — John Dryden

All heiresses are beautiful. — John Dryden

Imagining is in itself the very height and life of poetry, which, by a kind of enthusiasm or extraordinary emotion of the soul, makes it seem to us that we behold those things which the poet paints. — John Dryden

Revealed religion first informed thy sight, and reason saw not till faith sprung to light. — John Dryden

Is it not evident, in these last hundred years (when the Study of Philosophy has been the business of all the Virtuosi in Christendome) that almost a new Nature has been revealed to us? that more errours of the School have been detected, more useful Experiments in Philosophy have been made, more Noble Secrets in Opticks, Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, discover'd, than in all those credulous and doting Ages from Aristotle to us? So true it is that nothing spreads more fast than Science, when rightly and generally cultivated. — John Dryden

For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen. — John Dryden

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

And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd For one fair female, lost him half the kind. — John Dryden

All flowers will droop in the absence of the sun that waked their sweets. — John Dryden

Second thoughts, they say, are best. — John Dryden

Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son. — John Dryden

Where'e're I go, my Soul shall stay with thee:
'Tis but my Shadow I take away ... — John Dryden

Fortune, that with malicious joyDoes man her slave oppress,Proud of her office to destroy,Is seldom pleasd to bless. — John Dryden

A thing well said will be wit in all languages. — John Dryden

Calms appear, when Storms are past;
Love will have his Hour at last:
Nature is my kindly Care;
Mars destroys, and I repair;
Take me, take me, while you may,
Venus comes not ev'ry Day. — John Dryden

To die is landing on some distant shore. — John Dryden

The commendation of adversaries is the greatest triumph of a writer, because it never comes unless extorted. — John Dryden

There is a proud modesty in merit. — John Dryden

Zeal, the blind conductor of the will. — John Dryden

Parting is worse than death; it is death of love! — John Dryden

Hold, are you mad? you damn'd confounded Dog,
I am to rise, and speak the Epilogue. — John Dryden

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age. — John Dryden

All authors to their own defects are blind. — John Dryden