Quote

By viewing nature, nature's handmaid art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow: Thus fishes first to shipping did impart, Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.

John Dryden

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Dryden
Age: 68 †
Born: 1631
Born: August 7
Died: 1700
Died: May 12
Hymnwriter
Literary Critic
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Aldwincle
Northamptonshire
First
Grow
Viewing
Things
Head
Impart
Grows
Beginnings
Prow
Small
Tail
Handmaid
Makes
Tails
Handmaids
Art
Mighty
Rudder
Nature
Fishes
Rudders
Firsts
Thus
Shipping

More quotes by John Dryden

Image
Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.
John Dryden
Image
The poorest of the sex have still an itch To know their fortunes, equal to the rich. The dairy-maid inquires, if she shall take The trusty tailor, and the cook forsake.
John Dryden
Image
Ever a glutton, at another's cost, But in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost.
John Dryden
Image
Dreams are but interludes that fancy makes... Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
John Dryden
Image
Every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies.
John Dryden
Image
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
Image
The Fates but only spin the coarser clue The finest of the wool is left for you.
John Dryden
Image
Having mourned your sin, for outward Eden lost, find paradise within.
John Dryden
Image
Good sense and good-nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good-nature, by which I mean beneficence and candor, is the product of right reason.
John Dryden
Image
Nature meant me A wife, a silly, harmless, household dove, Fond without art, and kind without deceit.
John Dryden
Image
Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle.
John Dryden
Image
Mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out of nature, though everything is altered.
John Dryden
Image
With how much ease believe we what we wish!
John Dryden
Image
The soft complaining flute, In dying notes, discovers The woes of hopeless lovers.
John Dryden
Image
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
John Dryden
Image
For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools.
John Dryden
Image
Not sharp revenge, nor hell itself can find, A fiercer torment than a guilty mind, Which day and night doth dreadfully accuse, Condemns the wretch, and still the charge renews.
John Dryden
Image
Imitation pleases, because it affords matter for inquiring into the truth or falsehood of imitation, by comparing its likeness or unlikeness with the original.
John Dryden
Image
He was exhaled his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
John Dryden
Image
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