John Dryden Quotes

Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

There is a pleasure sure in being mad which none but madmen know
-John Dryden

NOW with a general Peace the World was blest, While Ours, a World divided from the rest,

Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,
Or exercise their spite in human woe?

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

Reason to rule, mercy to forgive:
The first is law, the last prerogative.

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

Order is the greatest grace

Two if's scarce make one possibility.

From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
When nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
'Arise, ye more than dead!'
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And Music's power obey.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.

In this the seat our Conqueror has given?
And this the climate we must change for heaven?
These Regions and this realm my wars have got
The mournful Empire is the loser's lot.

Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few.

When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!

Bacchus, ever fair and ever young.

All have not the gift of martyrdom.