John Dryden
John Dryden
John Drydenwas an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668...
envy challenges merit
Merit challenges envy.
merit proud modesty
There is a proud modesty in merit.
proud pay merit
There's a proud modesty in merit; averse from asking, and resolved to pay ten times the gifts it asks.
men judging long
When a man's life is under debate, The judge can ne'er too long deliberate.
freedom democracies-have people
Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
heaps
To see and to be seen, in heaps they run; / Some to undo, and some to be undone.
affect gravity men name solid wanting wit
Those wanting wit affect gravity and go by the name of solid men
affects assumes ears monarch seems shake
With ravished ears / The monarch hears, / Assumes the god, / Affects to nod, / And seems to shake the spheres.
cure doctor exercise fee fields health hunt wise
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise for cure on exercise depend;
shun struggle
Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare.
danced days witness
Witness ye days and nights, and all ye hours, / That danced away with down upon your feet.
earth kindly welcome
Welcome as kindly showers to the long parched earth.
few inhabited knowing
Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
action genius pains taught
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, But Genius must be born; and never can be taught