John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
3007 John Dryden 1631-1700 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 3007 |
| AUTHOR: | John Dryden (1631–1700) |
| QUOTATION: | When I consider life, ’t is all a cheat. Yet fool’d with hope, men favour the deceit; Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay. To-morrow ’s falser than the former day; Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest With some new joys, cuts off what we possest. Strange cozenage! none would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain; 1 And from the dregs of life think to receive What the first sprightly running could not give. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Aurengzebe. Act iv. Sc. 1. |
| Note 1. There are not eight finer lines in Lucretius—Thomas B. Macaulay: History of England, chap. xviii. [back] |