happy the man

John Dryden, 1600s

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.


Be fair or foul or rain or shine

The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate are mine.

Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,

But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.