John Dryden Mean Quotations

Nature meant me a wife, a silly harmless household Dove, fond without art; and kind without deceit.

Affability, mildness, tenderness, and a word which I would fain bring back to its original signification of virtue,--I mean good-nature,--are of daily use; they are the bread of mankind and staff of life.

Good sense and good-nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good-nature, by which I mean beneficence and candor, is the product of right reason.

We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search for truth; it is their common method to take on trust what they help distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity.

But when to sin our biased nature leans, The careful Devil is still at hand with means; And providently pimps for ill desires.