718 Quotes by John Dryden

Thou spring'st a leak already in thy crown, / A flaw is in thy ill-bak'd vessel found; / 'Tis hollow, and returns a jarring sound, / Yet thy moist clay is pliant to command, / Unwrought, and easy to the potter's hand: / Now take the mould; / now bend thy mind to feel / The first sharp motions of the forming wheel.

Like eager Romans e’er all Rites were past, / Did let too soon the sacred Eagle fly.

On eagle’s wings immortal scandals fly, / While virtuous actions are but born and die.

How easy ’tis, when / Destiny proves kind, / With full-spread sails to run before the wind!

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.

She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, / Can draw you to her with a single hair.

Can flowers but droop in absence of the sun,/ Which waked their sweets?