War is the trade of Kings.
Meaning of the quote
Kings often start wars because fighting battles and conquering land is their main job. They see war as a way to gain more power and expand their kingdoms.
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.
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But love’s a malady without a cure.
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Never was patriot yet, but was a fool.
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There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.
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He who would search for pearls must dive below.
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All heiresses are beautiful.
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Successful crimes alone are justified.
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Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
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Look around the inhabited world; how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
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Self-defence is Nature’s eldest law.
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For they conquer who believe they can.
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Dancing is the poetry of the foot.
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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.
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Words are but pictures of our thoughts.
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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.
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Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
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They that possess the prince possess the laws.
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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!
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The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
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If you be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.
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He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
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Pains of love be sweeter far than all other pleasures are.
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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.
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Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.
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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.
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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.
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What passions cannot music raise or quell?
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Love is love’s reward.
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Jealousy is the jaundice of the soul.
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All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
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The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.
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Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
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War is the trade of Kings.
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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.
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But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.
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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.
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Death in itself is nothing; but we fear to be we know not what, we know not where.
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And plenty makes us poor.
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To die is landing on some distant shore.
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It is madness to make fortune the mistress of events, because by herself she is nothing and is ruled by prudence.
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Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail our lion now will foreign foes assail.
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Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
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God never made His work for man to mend.
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We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
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All objects lose by too familiar a view.
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Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.
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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.
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Reason is a crutch for age, but youth is strong enough to walk alone.
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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.
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Repentance is but want of power to sin.
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Love is not in our choice but in our fate.
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The first is the law, the last prerogative.
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A knock-down argument; ’tis but a word and a blow.
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Even victors are by victories undone.
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Tomorrow do thy worst, I have lived today.
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You see through love, and that deludes your sight, As what is straight seems crooked through the water.
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When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit.
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Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.
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Love works a different way in different minds, the fool it enlightens and the wise it blinds.
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