John Dryden

"But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he."

"Their heavenly harps a lower strain began, And in soft music mourn the fall of man."

"Thespis, the first professor of our art, At country wakes sung ballads from a cart."

"Happy who in his verse can gently steer From grave to light, from pleasant to severe."

"Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence."

"Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line."

"Above any Greek or Roman name."

"Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher that they took; Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as they passed."

"Since heaven's eternal year is thine."

"O gracious God! how far have we Profaned thy heavenly gift of poesy!"

"Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child."

"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."

"And torture one poor word ten thousand ways."

"Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpassed; The next, in majesty; in both the last. The force of Nature could no further go. To make a third, she joined the former two."

"Fairest Isle, all isles excelling, Seat of pleasures, and of loves; Venus here will choose her dwelling, And forsake her Cyprian groves."

"Truth is the foundation of all knowledge, and the cement of all societies."

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

"Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace."

"Genius must be born, and never can be taught."

"Be kind to my remains; and oh defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend!"

"How easie is it 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! To spare the grossness of the Names, and to do the thing yet more severely, is to draw a full Face, and to make the Nose and Cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of Shadowing. This is the Mystery of that Noble Trade, which yet no Master can teach to his Apprentice: He may give the Rules, but the Scholar is never the nearer in his practice. Neither is it true, that this fineness of Raillery is offensive. A witty Man is tickl'd while he is hurt in this manner, and a Fool feels it not. The occasion of an Offence may possibly be given, but he cannot take it. If it be granted that in effect this way does more Mischief; that a Man is secretly wounded, and though he be not sensible himself, yet the malicious World will find it for him: yet there is still a vast difference betwixt the slovenly Butchering of a Man, and the fineness of a stroke that separates the Head from the Body, and leaves it standing in its place."

"Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend So great a poet and so good a friend."

"Lord of yourself, uncumbered with a wife."

"Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend."

"He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew."

"Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I."

"And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand."

"By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid Art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow."

"So close behind some promontory lie The huge Leviathan to attend their prey, And give no chance, but swallow in the fry, Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way."

"If confidence presage a victory, Eugenius, in his own opinion, has already triumphed over the Ancients: nothing seems more easy to him than to overcome those whom it is our greatest praise to have imitated well; for we do not only build upon their foundation, but by their models."

"The Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unités, or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action."

"To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there. I cannot say he is every where alike; were he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of Mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his Comick wit degenerating into clenches; his serious swelling into Bombast. But he is alwayes great, when some great occasion is presented to him: no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of the Poets,"

"Music...is inarticulate poesy."

"He who servilely creeps after sense Is safe, but ne'er will reach an excellence."

"All delays are dangerous in war."

"Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are."

"Midas me no midas."

"Madam me no madam."

"I am as free as Nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran."

"Forgiveness to the injured does belong; But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong."

"What precious drops are those Which silently each other's track pursue, Bright as young diamonds in their infant dew?"

"Fame then was cheap, and the first comer sped; And they have kept it since by being dead."

"We lov'd, and we lov'd, as long as we could, Till our love was lov'd out in us both: But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled: 'Twas pleasure first made it an oath."

"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."

"Death in itself is nothing; but we fear To be we know not what, we know not where."

"When I consider life, 't is all a cheat. Yet fool'd 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 possest. Strange cozenage! none would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; And from the dregs of life think to receive What the first sprightly running could not give."

"'T is not for nothing that we life pursue; It pays our hopes with something still that's new."

"Your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me."

"Burn daylight."

"I am resolved to grow fat, and look young till forty."