Mere poets are sottish as mere drunkards are, who live in a continual …

John Dryden
177 citations
Mere poets are sottish as mere drunkards are, who live in a continual mist, without seeing or judging anything clearly. A man should be learned in several sciences, and should have a reasonable, philosophical and in some measure a mathematical head, to be a complete and excellent poet. ✨ John Dryden, George Saintsbury, Sir Walter Scott (1892). The Works of John Dryden: Poetical works
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Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. ✨ John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales and … ▶
Happy the man, and happy he alone, he, who can call today his own. ✨ Imitation of Horace bk. 3, ode 29, l. 65 (1685)
For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind. ✨ John Dryden, John Mitford (1847). The Works of John Dryden in Verse and Prose, p.108
Not to ask is not be denied.
When he spoke, what tender words he used! So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow, They melted as they fell. ✨ John Dryden (1808). The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volu … ▶

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