Quote#Wisdom
Let those find fault whose wit's so very small
Quote byJohn Dryden · 1631–1700
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: All for Love (1678), Prologue.
English (original)
Let those find fault whose wit's so very small, They've need to show that they can think at all; Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below. Fops may have leave to level all they can; As pigmies would be glad to lop a man. Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light, We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.
— John Dryden
More from John Dryden
All things are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead, The Mountains seem to nod their drowsy head; The little Birds in dreams their Songs repeat, And sleeping Flowers, beneath the night-dew sweat; Even Lust and Envy sleep.
But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.
So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.
An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
Their heavenly harps a lower strain began, And in soft music mourn the fall of man.