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John Dryden
(19 Aug 1631 - 12 May 1700)
English poet and critic.
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Science Quotes by John Dryden (8 quotes)
Arts and sciences in one and the same century have arrived at great perfection; and no wonder, since every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies; the work then, being pushed on by many hands, must go forward.
— John Dryden
In Samuel Austin Allibone, Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay (1880), 45.
Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught, The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend.
— John Dryden
'To my Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden', The English Poets (1901), Vol. 2, 491.
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
— John Dryden
'Prologue to Anthony and Cleopatra'. All For Love (1678), edited by David M. Vieth (2001), 25.
From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony
This universal Frame began.
This universal Frame began.
— John Dryden
'A Song for St. Cecila's Day' (1687), lines 1-2, in James Kinsley (ed.), The Poems and Fables of John Dryden (1962), 422.
Gilbert shall live, till Load-stones cease to draw,
Or British Fleets the boundless Ocean awe.
Or British Fleets the boundless Ocean awe.
— John Dryden
'To my Honour'd Friend, Dr Charleton' (1663), lines 25-6, in James Kinsley (ed.), The Poems and Fables of John Dryden (1962), 33.
Is it not evident, in these last hundred years (when the Study of Philosophy has been the business of all the Virtuosi in Christendome) that almost a new Nature has been revealed to us? that more errours of the School have been detected, more useful Experiments in Philosophy have been made, more Noble Secrets in Opticks, Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, discover'd, than in all those credulous and doting Ages from Aristotle to us? So true it is that nothing spreads more fast than Science, when rightly and generally cultivated.
— John Dryden
Of Dramatic Poesie (1684 edition), lines 258-67, in James T. Boulton (ed.) (1964), 44
The longest tyranny that ever sway'd
Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd
Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle],
And made his torch their universal light.
So truth, while only one suppli'd the state,
Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd
Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle],
And made his torch their universal light.
So truth, while only one suppli'd the state,
Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
— John Dryden
'To my Honour'd Friend, Dr Charleton' (1663), lines 1-6, in James Kinsley (ed.), The Poems and Fables of John Dryden (1962), 32.
Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go,
And view the ocean leaning on the sky:
From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know,
And on the Lunar world securely pry.
And view the ocean leaning on the sky:
From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know,
And on the Lunar world securely pry.
— John Dryden
'Annus Mirabilis The year of Wonders, 1666' (1667), lines 653-6, in James Kinsley (ed.), The Poems and Fables of John Dryden (1962), 81.
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
