Quote

Every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies.

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
Universal
Genius
Particular
Study
Age
Live
Inclines
Every
Incline
Kind
Studies

More quotes by John Dryden

Image
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.
John Dryden
Image
For all have not the gift of martyrdom.
John Dryden
Image
The perverseness of my fate is such that he's not mine because he's mine too much.
John Dryden
Image
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.
John Dryden
Image
I never saw any good that came of telling truth.
John Dryden
Image
not judging truth to be in nature better than falsehood, but setting a value upon both according to interest.
John Dryden
Image
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.
John Dryden
Image
If you have lived, take thankfully the past. Make, as you can, the sweet remembrance last.
John Dryden
Image
Zeal, the blind conductor of the will.
John Dryden
Image
The winds that never moderation knew, Afraid to blow too much, too faintly blew Or out of breath with joy, could not enlarge Their straighten'd lungs or conscious of their charge.
John Dryden
Image
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
Image
Possess your soul with patience.
John Dryden
Image
A farce is that in poetry which grotesque (caricature) is in painting. The persons and actions of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsistent with the characters of mankind and grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this.
John Dryden
Image
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.
John Dryden
Image
…So when the last and dreadful hour This crumbling pageant shall devour, The trumpet shall be heard on high, The dead shall live, the living die, And Music shall untune the sky
John Dryden
Image
The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind's great bribe.
John Dryden
Image
The trumpet's loud clangor Excites us to arms.
John Dryden
Image
The scum that rises upmost, when the nation boils.
John Dryden
Image
They live too long who happiness outlive.
John Dryden
Image
If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in some sort parties for, since they say the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be sure that they will be impartial judges?
John Dryden