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One cannot say he wanted wit, but rather that he was frugal of it.

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
Wanted
Frugal
Wit
Rather
Cannot

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A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into truth.
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Good sense and good nature are never separated and good nature is the product of right reason.
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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.
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Old age creeps on us ere we think it nigh.
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Truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie than the will can choose an apparent evil.
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Maintain your post: That's all the fame you need For 'tis impossible you should proceed.
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The Fates but only spin the coarser clue The finest of the wool is left for you.
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Order is the greatest grace.
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Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine, The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not heaven itself upon the past has power But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
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The brave man seeks not popular applause, Nor, overpower'd with arms, deserts his cause Unsham'd, though foil'd, he does the best he can, Force is of brutes, but honor is of man.
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For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.
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The winds are out of breath.
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What passion cannot music raise and quell!
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Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.
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Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
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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!
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Every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another.
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Even kings but play and when their part is done, some other, worse or better, mounts the throne.
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But 'tis the talent of our English nation, Still to be plotting some new reformation.
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