Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. Almahide, in The Conquest of Granada, pt. 2, act 4, sc. 3 (1670).)

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.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. Antony, in All for Love, act 2, sc. 1 (1678).)

Successful crimes alone are justified.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. The Medal, l. 208 (1682).)

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.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. Imitation of Horace, bk. 3, Ode 29 (1685).)

Tis sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. Fables Ancient and Modern, preface (1700). Referring to Geoffrey Chaucer.)

The sire then shook the honors of his head,
And from his brows damps of oblivion shed
Full on the filial dullness:

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet. Alternative title, A Satire upon the True-Blue Protestant Poet T.S... MacFlecknoe; or, A Satire upon the True-Blue Protestant Poet T.S. (l. 135-137). . . Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938) Oxford University Press.)

He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.... He needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. Neander, in An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668).)

Thus intranc'd they did lie,
Till Alexis did try
To recover new breath, that again he might die:
Then often they died; but the more they did so,
The nymph died more quick, and the shepherd more slow.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet. Marriage ? la Mode. . . Heath Introduction to Poetry, The. Joseph de Roche, ed. (3d ed., 1988) D. C. Heath and Company.)

He invades authors like a monarch; and what would be theft in other poets is only victory in him.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet, dramatist, critic. Neander, in Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). Speaking of dramatist Ben Jonson.)

Time and death shall depart and say in flying
Love has found out a way to live, by dying.

(John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet. No, No, Poor Suffering Heart. . . Little Treasury of British Poetry, A. Oscar Williams, ed. (1951) Charles Scribner's Sons.)