John Dryden
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?Collection: Party
An horrible stillness first invades our ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.Collection: Fear
Content with poverty, my soul I arm; And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.Collection: Soul
Blown roses hold their sweetness to the last.Collection: Rose
All delays are dangerous in war.Collection: War
Youth should watch joys and shoot them as they fly.Collection: Joy
The bravest men are subject most to chance.Collection: Men
I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night.Collection: Morning
Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.Collection: May
Satire is a kind of poetry in which human vices are reprehended.Collection: Vices
Fattened in vice, so callous and so gross, he sins and sees not, senseless of his loss.Collection: Loss
Pride - Lord of human kindCollection: Pride
Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes.Collection: Men
Murder may pass unpunishd for a time, But tardy justice will oertake the crime.Collection: Justice
So the false spider, when her nets are spread, deep ambushed in her silent den does lie.Collection: Lying
He is a perpetual fountain of good sense.Collection: Fountain
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 to the patient when he prescribes harsh remedies.Collection: Writing
These are the effects of doting age,--vain doubts and idle cares and over caution.Collection: Doubt
Whatever is, is in its causes just.Collection: Justice
For lawful power is still superior found, When long driven back, at length it stands the ground.Collection: Long
I strongly wish for what I faintly hope; like the daydreams of melancholy men, I think and think in things impossible, yet love to wander in that golden maze.Collection: Men
Set all things in their own peculiar place, and know that order is the greatest grace.Collection: Order
Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.Collection: Mind
Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.Collection: Light
None but the brave deserve the fair.Collection: Brave
Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.Collection: I Miss You
For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools.Collection: Children
Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.Collection: Freedom
Errors like straws upon the surface flow, Who would search for pearls to be grateful for often must dive below.Collection: Gratitude
Many things impossible to thought have been by need to full perfection brought.Collection: Perfection
Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught, The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend.Collection: Wise
If passion rules, how weak does reason prove!Collection: Passion
None would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; And, from the dregs of life, think to receive, What the first sprightly running could not give.Collection: Running
Since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in poetry or painting, must produce a much greater; for both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature.Collection: Art
Affability, mildness, tenderness, and a word which I would fain bring back to its original signification of virtue,--I mean good-nature,--are of daily use; they are the bread of mankind and staff of life.Collection: Good Life
A good conscience is a port which is landlocked on every side, where no winds can possibly invade. There a man may not only see his own image, but that of his Maker, clearly reflected from the undisturbed waters.Collection: Men
They say everything in the world is good for something.Collection: World
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.Collection: Life
He look'd in years, yet in his years were seen A youthful vigor, and autumnal green.Collection: Years
All the learn'd are cowards by profession.Collection: Coward
not judging truth to be in nature better than falsehood, but setting a value upon both according to interest.Collection: Judging
Rhyme is the rock on which thou art to wreck.Collection: Art
Fortune's unjust; she ruins oft the brave, and him who should be victor, makes the slave.Collection: Brave