John Dryden Quotes

I thought clay must feel happy in the good potter's hand.

Earthenware is like people, it needs to be well treated.

So much depends upon our willingness to make up our minds, collectively and individually, that present levels of performance are not acceptable, either to ourselves or to the Lord. In saying that, I am not calling for flashy, temporary differences in our performance levels, but a quiet resolve to do a better job, to lengthen our stride.

Fang’s hand gently smoothed my hair off my neck. My breath froze in my chest, and every sense seemed hyperalert. His hand stroked my hair again, so softly, and then trailed across my neck and shoulder and down my back, making me shiver. I looked up. “What the heck are you doing?” “Helping you change your mind,” he whispered, and then he leaned over, tilted my chin up, and kissed me.

When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not- God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.

Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.

Ideas in the head set hands about their several tasks.

I believe that having an open mind is one of the most important qualities we can possess. Once our minds close, we stop evolving.

For, in truth, an image is only dead matter shaped by the craftsman's hand. But we have no sensible image of sensible matter, but an image that is perceived by the mind alone: God, who alone is truly God.

If a man wants love he should correct his weaknesses, or his flaws, and he may deserve it. But he cannot expect the unearned, either in love or in money; either in matter or in spirit.

There is nothing new to gain. On the other hand a man must lose his ignorance. That is all.

Every man is what he is, because of the DOMINATING THOUGHTS which he permits to occupy his mind.

Hee that bewailes himselfe hath the cure in his hands.

Victory is sweetest when you've know defeat. Ability will never catch up with the demand for it. You pay for everything, even including speaking your mind (with or without one). Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

The mirrors in your mind can reflect the best of yourself, not the worst of someone else.

I can move objects with my mind, if I use my hands.

Weaken a bad habit by avoiding everything that occasioned it or stimulated it, without concentrating upon it in your zeal to avoid it. Then divert your mind to some good habit and steadily cultivate it until it becomes a dependable part of you.

Our elevation must be the result of self-efforts and work of our own hands. No other human power can accomplish it. If we but determine it shall be so, it will be so.

I wonder how long it would take him to realize I'm right as sin - it's the rest of the world that's wrong. I'm not even sure how I qualify for admission to Aspen Springs. Does wanting to die equal losing your mind?

As Lucretius says: 'Thus ever from himself doth each man flee.' But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself and weighs upon himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so we ought to understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves

I don’t mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I’ve done as well as I possibly could.

If you're lookin' for a helpin' hand, try the one at the end of your arm.

A book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand.