John Dryden quotes - page 11

It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for the Latin (a most severe and compendious language) often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more. ...But since every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words; it is enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense. (John Dryden)
From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: When nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, 'Arise, ye more than dead!' Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man. View quote
John Dryden
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 musick shall untune the Sky. View quote
John Dryden
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. View quote
John Dryden
None but the brave deserves the fair. View quote
John Dryden
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. View quote
John Dryden
For all the happiness mankind can gain Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain. View quote
John Dryden
He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master. View quote
John Dryden
For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools. View quote
John Dryden
Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance. View quote
John Dryden
Presence of mind, and courage in distress, Are more than armies to procure success. (John Dryden)
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows. View quote
John Dryden
For politicians neither love nor hate. View quote
John Dryden
A mob is the scum that rises utmost when the nation boils. View quote
John Dryden
Love is a passion Which kindles honor into noble acts. View quote
John Dryden
Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause. View quote
John Dryden
Let those find fault whose wit's so very small, They've need to show that they can think at all; Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below. Fops may have leave to level all they can; As pigmies would be glad to lop a man. Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light, We scarce could know they live, but that they bite. View quote
John Dryden
For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss. View quote
John Dryden
Mere poets are sottish as mere drunkards are, who live in a continual mist, without seeing or judging anything clearly. A man should be learned in several sciences, and should have a reasonable, philosophical and in some measure a mathematical head, to be a complete and excellent poet. View quote
John Dryden
As one that neither seeks, nor shuns his foe. View quote
John Dryden
Youth, beauty, graceful action seldom fail But common interest always will prevail And pity never ceases to be shown To him who makes the peoples wrongs his own. (John Dryden)
Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother ten, Man looks aloft and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies. View quote
John Dryden
How can finite grasp infinity. View quote
John Dryden
None are so busy as the fool and the knave. View quote
John Dryden
I am devilishly afraid, thats certain but ... Ill sing, that I may seem valiant. View quote
John Dryden