John Dryden
Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.Collection: Resolve
Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I.Collection: Sex
More liberty begets desire of more; The hunger still increases with the storeCollection: Desire
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.Collection: Lying
A happy genius is the gift of nature.Collection: Genius
The conscience of a people is their power.Collection: People
I never saw any good that came of telling truth.Collection: Truth
No king nor nation one moment can retard the appointed hour.Collection: Death
So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.Collection: Life
Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed, Yet, sprung from high, is of celestial seed: In God 'tisglory; and when men aspire, 'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire.Collection: Weed
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.Collection: Moving
The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself the inferior gift of Heaven.Collection: Heaven
Welcome, thou kind deceiver! Thou best of thieves; who, with an easy key, Dost open life, and, unperceived by us, Even steal us from ourselves.Collection: Life
There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.Collection: Asking
Riches cannot rescue from the grave, which claims alike the monarch and the slave.Collection: Riches
Restless at home, and ever prone to range.Collection: Travel
Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?Collection: Birthday
The Jews, a headstrong, moody, murmuring race.Collection: Race
He is the very Janus of poets; he wears almost everywhere two faces; and you have scarce begun to admire the one, ere you despise the other.Collection: Two
And nobler is a limited command, Given by the love of all your native land, Than a successive title, long and dark, Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's Ark.Collection: Country
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.Collection: Christian
So poetry, which is in Oxford made An art, in London only is a trade.Collection: Art
Genius must be born, it can't be taught.Collection: Genius
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.Collection: Leaving
How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! Tosparethegrossness ofthenames, and to dothe thing yet moreseverely, isto drawa full face, and tomake the nose and cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of shadowing.Collection: Men
A brave man scorns to quarrel once a day; Like Hectors in at every petty fray.Collection: Men
Love is a child that talks in broken language, yet then he speaks most plain.Collection: Children
Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!Collection: Success
I maintain, against the enemies of the stage, that patterns of piety, decently represented, may second the precepts.Collection: Drama
And that one hunting, which the Devil design'd For one fair female, lost him half the kind.Collection: Women
To breed up the son to common sense is evermore the parent's least expense.Collection: Education
Discover the opinion of your enemies, which is commonly the truest; for they will give you no quarter, and allow nothing to complaisance.Collection: Giving
The propriety of thoughts and words, which are the hidden beauties of a play, are but confusedly judged in the vehemence of action.Collection: Drama
My heart's so full of joy, That I shall do some wild extravagance Of love in public; and the foolish world, Which knows not tenderness, will think me mad.Collection: Heart
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.Collection: Writing
Better one suffer than a nation grieve.Collection: Grieving
Secret guilt by silence is betrayed.Collection: Silence
Music is inarticulate poesy.Collection: Music
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.Collection: Hair
Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets;Jonson was theVirgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare.Collection: Father
O freedom, first delight of human kind!Collection: Freedom
Sweet is pleasure after pain.Collection: Sweet
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.Collection: Strength
Order is the greatest grace.Collection: Order
Joy rul'd the day, and Love the night.Collection: Life
Ah, how sweet it is to love! Ah, how gay is young Desire! And what pleasing pains we prove When we first approach Love's fire!Collection: Love
Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes; When monarch reason sleeps, this mimic wakes.Collection: Dream