Even victors are by victories undone.
Meaning of the quote
The quote means that even people who win or triumph over others can be harmed or damaged by their own victories. The idea is that winning a battle or achieving success doesn't always make you better off - it can sometimes make things worse for you in the end. The quote suggests that victory can have unexpected negative consequences that you didn't expect.
About John Dryden
John Dryden was an acclaimed English writer who served as the first Poet Laureate of England. Known for his literary contributions during the Restoration era, Dryden was revered as the ‘Glorious John’ by writer Sir Walter Scott.
More quotes from John Dryden
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
17th-century English poet and playwright
But love’s a malady without a cure.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
17th-century English poet and playwright
There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.
17th-century English poet and playwright
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
17th-century English poet and playwright
All heiresses are beautiful.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Successful crimes alone are justified.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Self-defence is Nature’s eldest law.
17th-century English poet and playwright
For they conquer who believe they can.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Dancing is the poetry of the foot.
17th-century English poet and playwright
By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they were bred. The priest continues where the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Words are but pictures of our thoughts.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Go miser go, for money sell your soul. Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole, So others may say when you are dead and gone. See what a vast estate he left his son.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
17th-century English poet and playwright
They that possess the prince possess the laws.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Seek not to know what must not be reveal, for joy only flows where fate is most concealed. A busy person would find their sorrows much more; if future fortunes were known before!
17th-century English poet and playwright
The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
17th-century English poet and playwright
If you be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.
17th-century English poet and playwright
He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Pains of love be sweeter far than all other pleasures are.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.
17th-century English poet and playwright
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.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
17th-century English poet and playwright
What passions cannot music raise or quell?
17th-century English poet and playwright
Love is love’s reward.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.
17th-century English poet and playwright
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
17th-century English poet and playwright
The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
17th-century English poet and playwright
War is the trade of Kings.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Honor is but an empty bubble.
17th-century English poet and playwright
But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Beware the fury of a patient man.
17th-century English poet and playwright
For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen.
17th-century English poet and playwright
And love’s the noblest frailty of the mind.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.
17th-century English poet and playwright
And plenty makes us poor.
17th-century English poet and playwright
To die is landing on some distant shore.
17th-century English poet and playwright
It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
17th-century English poet and playwright
God never made His work for man to mend.
17th-century English poet and playwright
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
17th-century English poet and playwright
All objects lose by too familiar a view.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.
17th-century English poet and playwright
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.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Repentance is but want of power to sin.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
17th-century English poet and playwright
The first is the law, the last prerogative.
17th-century English poet and playwright
A knock-down argument; ’tis but a word and a blow.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Even victors are by victories undone.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.
17th-century English poet and playwright
You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.
17th-century English poet and playwright
When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.
17th-century English poet and playwright
Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.
17th-century English poet and playwright