John Dryden

Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.

Genius must be born, and never can be taught.

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.

Even victors are by victories undone.

And love's the noblest frailty of the mind.

Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.

Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.

Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.

Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.

Honor is but an empty bubble.

A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.

You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.

The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.

To die is landing on some distant shore.

God never made His work for man to mend.

Repentance is but want of power to sin.

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.

He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

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.

Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.

For they conquer who believe they can.

Love is not in our choice but in our fate.

Self-defence is Nature's eldest law.

What passions cannot music raise or quell?

They that possess the prince possess the laws.

Successful crimes alone are justified.

It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.

All objects lose by too familiar a view.

Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.

For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen.

All heiresses are beautiful.

Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.

Words are but pictures of our thoughts.

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.

All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.

Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.

The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.

Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.

When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.

By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

If you be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.

Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.

The first is the law, the last prerogative.

But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.

Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.

War is the trade of Kings.

Beware the fury of a patient man.