John Dryden (1631–1700) was an English poet, literary critic, and playwright who so dominated the literary scene of his day that it came to be known as the Age of Dryden. He wrote nearly 30 plays and was one of the great dramatists of the Augustan Age.
Born in Aldwinkle All Saints, Northamptonshire, Dryden was educated at Westminster School and Cambridge’s Trinity College. He became known for his Heroic Stanzas (1658) on General Oliver Cromwell’s death. It was tactfully followed by Astraea Redux (1660,) praising King Charles II. Dryden was the first Poet Laureate 1668–88 when King James II was ousted in the Glorious Revolution.
Dryden’s other poems include Annus Mirabilis (1667,) the verse satires Absalom and Achitophel (1681,) the religious allegory The Hind and the Panther (1687,) and the ode Alexander’s Feast (1693.)
Dryden is best known for his outstanding plays, including Marriage à la mode (comedy, 1673,) All for Love (a tragedy based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, 1678.) His final work, Fables, Ancient and Modern (1699,) consisting of interpretations of Geoffrey Chaucer, Ovid, and Giovanni Boccaccio, continues to be popular.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Dryden
A narrow mind begets obstinacy; we do not easily believe what we cannot see.
—John Dryden
Topics: Mind
Be slow to resolve, but quick in performance.
—John Dryden
Topics: Decisions
Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows.
—John Dryden
Topics: Courage
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own;
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
—John Dryden
Topics: Time Management, Contentment, Happiness, The Present
He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.
—John Dryden
Topics: Plagiarism
These are the effects of doting age: vain doubts, idle cares and overcaution.
—John Dryden
Topics: Aging, Age
Not to ask is not be denied.
—John Dryden
Topics: Silence
All objects lose by too familiar a view.
—John Dryden
Topics: Knowledge, Familiarity
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
—John Dryden
Topics: Patriotism
Trust reposed in noble natures obliges them the more.
—John Dryden
Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.
—John Dryden
Topics: Temptation
My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.
—John Dryden
Topics: Guilt
Successful crimes alone are justified.
—John Dryden
Topics: Crime
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
—John Dryden
Topics: War
Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.
—John Dryden
Topics: Love
How strangely high endeavors may be blessed, where piety and valor jointly go.
—John Dryden
Topics: Valor
His voice attention still as midnight draws—his voice more gentle than the summer’s breeze.
—John Dryden
He raves; his words are loose as heaps of sand, and scattered wide from sense.—So high he’s mounted on his airy throne, that now the wind has got into his head, and turns his brains to frenzy.
—John Dryden
Topics: Madness
So over violent, or over civil that every man with him was God or Devil.
—John Dryden
Topics: Fanaticism
Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understanding is warped with enthusiasm.
—John Dryden
Topics: Truth, Enthusiasm
Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.
—John Dryden
Topics: Jealousy
But here she comes, in the calm harbor of whose gentle breast, my tempest beaten soul may safely rest.—O, my heart’s joy, whate’er my sorrows be, they cease and vanish on beholding thee.—By this one view all my past pains are paid, and all I have to come, more easy made.
—John Dryden
Topics: Meeting
The end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction, and he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the offender, than the physician is to the patient when he prescribes harsh remedies.
—John Dryden
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.
—John Dryden
Topics: Grace, Love
Men are but children of a larger growth; our appetites are as apt to change as theirs, and full as craving, too, and full as vain.
—John Dryden
Topics: Maturity, Man
The gems of heaven, that gild night’s sable throne.
—John Dryden
Topics: Stars
They never pardon who commit the wrong.
—John Dryden
Topics: Forgiveness
Keen appetite And quick digestion wait on you and yours.
—John Dryden
Topics: Appetite
Kings fight for empires, madmen for applause.
—John Dryden
Topics: Kings, Royalty, Queens
Fool that I was, upon my eagle’s wings I bore this wren, till I was tired with soaring, and now he mounts above me.
—John Dryden
Topics: Aid, Assistance, Help
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