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Desire of greatness is a godlike sin.

John Dryden

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John Dryden
Age: 68 †
Born: 1631
Born: August 7
Died: 1700
Died: May 12
Hymnwriter
Literary Critic
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Aldwincle
Northamptonshire
Godlike
Greatness
Sin
Desire

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Silence in times of suffering is the best.
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Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, Soon he sooth'd his soul to pleasures. War, he sung, is toil and trouble Honour but an empty bubble Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying. If all the world be worth the winning, Think, oh think it worth enjoying: Lovely Thais sits beside thee, Take the good the gods provide thee.
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Want is a bitter and a hateful good, Because its virtues are not understood Yet many things, impossible to thought, Have been by need to full perfection brought. The daring of the soul proceeds from thence, Sharpness of wit, and active diligence Prudence at once, and fortitude it gives And, if in patience taken, mends our lives.
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How blessed is he, who leads a country life, Unvex'd with anxious cares, and void of strife! Who studying peace, and shunning civil rage, Enjoy'd his youth, and now enjoys his age: All who deserve his love, he makes his own And, to be lov'd himself, needs only to be known.
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Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave deserves the fair.
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Fool, not to know that love endures no tie, And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.
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The thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a virtuous man.
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Love is a child that talks in broken language, yet then he speaks most plain.
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I maintain, against the enemies of the stage, that patterns of piety, decently represented, may second the precepts.
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Interest makes all seem reason that leads to it.
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When bounteous autumn rears her head, he joys to pull the ripened pear.
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Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
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Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go, And view the ocean leaning on the sky: From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know, And on the Lunar world securely pry.
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Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes.
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To so perverse a sex all grace is vain.
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Riches cannot rescue from the grave, which claims alike the monarch and the slave.
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