Link Copied!
John Dryden Quotes (1631-1700)
Poet, King, Playwright
-100px.jpg)
-100px.png)
-100px.jpg)
-100px.jpg)
About John Dryden
John Dryden (19 August
Best John Dryden Quotes
Shortest
Earliest
Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful John Dryden quotes.
“Self-defence is nature's eldest law”
John Dryden Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of John Dryden quotes by topic.
John Dryden on Love 10 quotes
View all 10 quotes on Love →John Dryden on Poetry about love 8 quotes
View all 8 quotes on Poetry about love →John Dryden on Death 7 quotes
“He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.”
John Dryden on Character 6 quotes
View all 6 quotes on Character →John Dryden on Life 5 quotes
View all 5 quotes on Life →John Dryden on Man 4 quotes
View all 4 quotes on Man →John Dryden on Time 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Time →John Dryden on Fortune 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Fortune →John Dryden on Nature 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Nature →John Dryden on Insanity 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Insanity →John Dryden on Sun 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Sun →What John Dryden Said About Others
Discover personal opinions John Dryden shared regarding contemporaries.
John Dryden on Virgil 9 quotes
View all 9 quotes on Virgil →John Dryden on Women 7 quotes
“What all your sex desire is Sovereignty.”
John Dryden on John Milton 5 quotes
View all 5 quotes on John Milton →John Dryden on William Shakespeare 4 quotes
“But Shakespear's Magick could not copy'd be, Within that Circle none durst walk but he.”
John Dryden on Oliver Cromwell 3 quotes
“His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest, His name a great example stands to show How strangely high endeavours may be blest, Where piety and valour jointly go.”
John Dryden on Geoffrey Chaucer 2 quotes
“'Tis sufficient to say according to the Proverb, that here is God's Plenty.”
John Dryden on Edmund Spenser 2 quotes
“No man was ever born with a greater genius, or had more knowledge to support it.”
John Dryden on Torquato Tasso
John Dryden on William Gilbert (astronomer)
“Gilbert shall live till loadstones cease to draw, Or British fleets the boundless ocean awe.”
-100px.jpg)
John Dryden on Wives
“ You know I met you, Kist you, and prest you close within my arms, With all the tenderness of wifely love.”
John Dryden on Luís de Camões
John Dryden on Ovid
“The fittest for my wound, Who best the gentle passions knows to move; Ovid, the soft philosopher of love: His Love Epistles for my friends I chose; For there I found the kindred of my woes.”
Quotes About John Dryden
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about John Dryden from others.
Hugh Blair on John Dryden
“He had made the language his study; and though he wrote hastily, and often incorrectly, and his style is not free from faults, yet there is a richness in his diction, a copiousness, ease, and variety in his expression, which has not been surpassed by any who have come after him.”
Charles Churchill on John Dryden
“Here let me bend, great Dryden, at thy shrine, Thou dearest name to all the tuneful nine. What if some dull lines in cold order creep, And with his theme the poet seems to sleep? Still, when his subject rises proud to view, With equal strength the poet rises too: With strong invention, noblest vigour fraught, Thought still springs up and rises out of thought; Numbers ennobling numbers in their course, In varied sweetness flow, in varied force; The powers of genius and of judgment join, And the whole Art of Poetry is thine.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins on John Dryden
“What is there in Dryden? Much, but above all this: he is the most masculine of our poets; his style and his rhythms lay the strongest stress of all our literature on the naked thew and sinew of the English language.”
Samuel Johnson on John Dryden 5 quotes
“Dryden may be properly considered as the father of English criticism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles the merit of composition.”
Alexander Pope on John Dryden 2 quotes
“ Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.”
About John Dryden
John Dryden (19 August