John Dryden Quotes About Wit

Quotes about: Wit

• Let those find fault whose wit's so very small, They've need to show that they can think at all; Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below. Fops may have leave to level all they can; As pigmies would be glad to lop a man. Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light, We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.

  John Dryden

  Men, Thinking, Errors

  John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.433

• A thing well said will be wit in all languages.

  John Dryden

  Language, Well Said, Wit

  'An Essay of Dramatic Poesy' (1668)

• He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. . . . He was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there. . . . He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating in to clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great, when some occasion is presented to him.

  John Dryden

  Book, Men, Soul

  'An Essay of Dramatic Poesy' (1668) on Shakespeare

• Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.

  John Dryden

  Children, Men, Innocence

  John Dryden, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (2007). “Dryden: Selected Poems”, p.364, Pearson Education

• Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

  John Dryden

  Literature, Madness, Wit

  'Absalom and Achitophel' (1681) pt. 1, l. 150

• One cannot say he wanted wit, but rather that he was frugal of it.

  John Dryden

  Wit, Frugal, Wanted

  1668 Of Ben Jonson. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy,'Shakespeare and Ben Jonson Compared'.

• Much malice mingled with a little wit Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ.

  John Dryden

  May, Littles, Mysterious

  'The Hind and the Panther' (1687) pt. 3, l. 1

• Want is a bitter and a hateful good,
  Because its virtues are not understood;
  Yet many things, impossible to thought,
  Have been by need to full perfection brought.
  The daring of the soul proceeds from thence,
  Sharpness of wit, and active diligence;
  Prudence at once, and fortitude it gives;
  And, if in patience taken, mends our lives.

  John Dryden

  Taken, Giving, Perfection

  John Dryden (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Dryden (Illustrated)”, p.504, Delphi Classics

• Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.

  John Dryden

  Shining, Lines, Cadence

  "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" l. 15 (1684)

• Ev'n wit's a burthen, when it talks too long.

  John Dryden

  Long, Wit

  John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales and Translations”, p.353

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