Ben Jonson famous quotes

To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
-- Ben Jonson

#Wise #Men #Two

True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
-- Ben Jonson

#Friendship #Positive #Happiness

There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
-- Ben Jonson

#No Fear #Hell #Prisoner

Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.
-- Ben Jonson

#Tyrants #Flattery #Beast

Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
-- Ben Jonson

#Inspiration #Ambition #Looks

Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I'll not look for wine.
-- Ben Jonson

#Romantic #Eye #Wine

Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.
-- Ben Jonson

#Memories #Mind #Frail

The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Smoking #Orangutans

He threatens many that hath injured one.
-- Ben Jonson

#Crime

He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
-- Ben Jonson

#Inspirational #Art #Fool

A good life is a main argument.
-- Ben Jonson

#Good Life #Inspirational Life #Argument

We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
-- Ben Jonson

#Fashion #Women #Quality

Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.
-- Ben Jonson

#Relax #Ruins #Reputation

Vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.
-- Ben Jonson

#Punishment #Mind #Vices

You learn nothing about someone by the way they win the fight, you learn everything about the way they lose and keep coming back.
-- Ben Jonson

#Art #Fighting #Winning

Poor worms, they hiss at me, whilst I at home Can be contented to applaud myself, . . . with joy To see how plump my bags are and my barns.
-- Ben Jonson

#Home #Joy #Barns

Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet's horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted.
-- Ben Jonson

#Horse #Wine #Plies

Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.
-- Ben Jonson

#Looks

Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
-- Ben Jonson

#Mistress #Deny #Court

Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.
-- Ben Jonson

#Death #Men #Good Man

Reader look, not on his picture but his book.
-- Ben Jonson

#Book #Looks #Reader

Hell itself must yield to industry.
-- Ben Jonson

#Yield #Hell

In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.
-- Ben Jonson

#Life #Summer #June

Neither do thou lust after that tawny weed tobacco.
-- Ben Jonson

#Weed #Marijuana #Lust

The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.
-- Ben Jonson

#Life #Dignity #Truth Is

One woman reads another's character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering
-- Ben Jonson

#Women #Character #Trouble

To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life's salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that's vanished- To endure, and go calmly on!
-- Ben Jonson

#Life #Dream #Struggle

Honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.
-- Ben Jonson

#Hate #Men #Honor

Let them call it mischief; when it is past and prospered, it will be virtue.
-- Ben Jonson

#Past #Virtue #Mischief

I am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honor and reputation.
-- Ben Jonson

#Education #Past #Honor

All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
-- Ben Jonson

#Speech #Harsh #Discourse

Man and wife make one fool.
-- Ben Jonson

#Marriage #Men #Wife

Queen and huntress, chaste and fair Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light Goddess, excellently bright.
-- Ben Jonson

#Queens #Sleep #Light

Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.
-- Ben Jonson

#Courage #Suffering #Valor

Cut Men's throats with whisperings.
-- Ben Jonson

#Cutting #Men #Whispering

Sweet meat must have sour sauce.
-- Ben Jonson

#Sweet #Swans #Meat

For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such, As what he loves may never like too much.
-- Ben Jonson

#Love #Sake #Too Much

To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.
-- Ben Jonson

#Long #Treasure #Pleasure

If men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man's being a good poet without first being a good man.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Office #Good Man

Poets are far rarer birds than kings.
-- Ben Jonson

#Kings #Bird #Poet

Each petty hand Can steer a ship becalm'd; but he that will Govern and carry her to her ends, must know His tides, his currents, how to shift his sails; What she will bear in foul, what in fair weathers; Where her springs are, her leaks, and how to stop 'em; What strands, what shelves, what rocks do threaten her.
-- Ben Jonson

#Spring #Rocks #Government

If I freely may discover What should please me in my lover, I would have her fair and witty, Savouring more of court than city; A little proud, but full of pity; Light and humorous in her toying, Oft building hopes, and soon destroying, Long, but sweet in the enjoying; Neither too easy nor to hard; All extremes I would have barr'd.
-- Ben Jonson

#Love #Witty #Sweet

That I might live alone once with my gold! O, 'tis a sweet companion! kind and true: A man may trust it when his father cheats him, Brother, or friend, or wife. O wondrous pelf! That which makes all men false, is true itself.
-- Ben Jonson

#Sweet #Money #Brother

The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator.
-- Ben Jonson

#Oratory #Poet

Princes that would their people should do well Must at themselves begin, as at the head; For men, by their example, pattern out Their limitations, and regard of laws: A virtuous court a world to virtue draws.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Law #People

Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.
-- Ben Jonson

#Sweet #Swans #Sight

Silence in woman is like speech in man.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Silence #Speech

Forbear, you things That stand upon the pinnacles of state, To boast your slippery height! when you do fall, You dash yourselves in pieces, ne'er to rise: And he that lends you pity, is not wise.
-- Ben Jonson

#Wise #Fall #Pieces

As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it.
-- Ben Jonson

#Art #Style #Matter

My thoughts and I were of another world.
-- Ben Jonson

#World #Another World #My Thoughts

It is a note Of upstart greatness to observe and watch For these poor trifles, which the noble mind Neglects and scorns.
-- Ben Jonson

#Greatness #Mind #Watches

Chance will not do the work. Chance sends the breeze; But if the pilot slumber at the helm, The very wind that wafts us tow'rds the port May dash us on the shoals. The steersman's part Is vigilance, or blow it rough or smooth.
-- Ben Jonson

#Blow #Wind #Slumber

It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Giving #Virtue

I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.
-- Ben Jonson

#Foolish #Eloquence

How near to good is what is fair!
-- Ben Jonson

#Goodness

Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Heaven #Good Man

I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Slave #Popularity

Money never made any man rich, but his mind. He that can order himself to the law of nature, is not only without the sense, but the fear of poverty.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Order #Law

Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
-- Ben Jonson

#Pride

No simple word That shall be uttered at our mirthful board, Shall make us sad next morning; or affright The liberty that we'll enjoy to-night.
-- Ben Jonson

#Morning #Regret #Simple

He that is respectless in his courses oft sells his reputation at cheap market.
-- Ben Jonson

#Reputation

The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade.
-- Ben Jonson

#Honesty #Men #Two

Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, Still to be powder'd, all perfum'd. Lady, it is to be presumed, Though art's hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.
-- Ben Jonson

#Sweet #Art #Sound

Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction.
-- Ben Jonson

#Book #Faithful #May

Tis not the wholesome sharp mortality, Or modest anger of a satiric spirit, That hurts or wounds the body of a state, But the sinister application Of the malicious, ignorant, and base Interpreter; who will distort and strain The general scope and purpose of an author To his particular and private spleen.
-- Ben Jonson

#Hurt #Ignorant #Criticism

Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.
-- Ben Jonson

#Clothes #Wit #Countenance

Rich apparel has strange virtues; it makes him that hath it without means esteemed for an excellent wit; he that enjoys it with means puts the world in remembrance of his means.
-- Ben Jonson

#Mean #Remembrance #World

Nor shall our cups make any guilty men; But at our parting, we will be, as when We innocently met.
-- Ben Jonson

#Drinking #Men #Cups

How Fortune piles her sports when she begins to practise them!
-- Ben Jonson

#Sports #Fortune

A good man will avoid the spot of any sin. The very aspersion is grievous, which makes him choose his way in his life, as he would in his journey.
-- Ben Jonson

#Journey #Men #Good Man

To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.
-- Ben Jonson

#Change #Men #Want

He that departs with his own honesty For Vulgar , doth it too dearly buy.
-- Ben Jonson

#Honesty #Vulgar

Love that is ignorant and hatred have almost the same ends.
-- Ben Jonson

#Hate #Hatred #Ignorant

Whom hatred frights, let him not dream of sovereignty.
-- Ben Jonson

#Dream #Hate #Hatred

The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.
-- Ben Jonson

#Hate #Men #Evil

Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.
-- Ben Jonson

#Beer #Drink #Wells

It strikes! one, two, Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch, Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now sleep and rest; Would thou could'st make the time to do so too; I'll wind thee up no more.
-- Ben Jonson

#Time #Sleep #Wind

The covetous man never has money. The prodigal will have none shortly.
-- Ben Jonson

#Money #Men

Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need
-- Ben Jonson

#Ambition #Needs #Slave

Calumnies are answered best with silence.
-- Ben Jonson

#Silence #Calumny

That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy will be at last bestowed by time.
-- Ben Jonson

#Disappointment #Envy #Age

Woman, the more careful she is about her face, the more careless about her house.
-- Ben Jonson

#Home #House #Faces

I do honor the very flea of his dog.
-- Ben Jonson

#Dog #Hero #Honor

Still may syllables jar with time, Still may reason war with rhyme, Resting never!
-- Ben Jonson

#War #Poetry #May

Our whole life is like a play.
-- Ben Jonson

#Life #Play #Life Is Like

Where guilty is, rage and courage doth abound.
-- Ben Jonson

#Guilt #Shame #Guilty

It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us.
-- Ben Jonson

#Hypocrisy #Dear

When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
-- Ben Jonson

#Grief #Men #Enemy

I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.
-- Ben Jonson

#Greed #Wealth #Glory

Ods me I marle what pleasure or felicity they have in taking their roguish tobacco. It is good for nothing but to choke a man, and fill him full of smoke and embers.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Smoking #Pleasure

Nothing is a courtesy unless it be meant us, and that friendly and lovingly. We owe no thanks to rivers that they carry our boats, or winds that they be favoring and fill our sails, or meats that they be nourishing; for these are what they are necessarily. Horses carry us, trees shade us; but they know it not.
-- Ben Jonson

#Horse #Rivers #Wind

Let those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink
-- Ben Jonson

#Drinking #Thinking #Anarchy

And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow'd them with her odorous foot.
-- Ben Jonson

#Flower #Roots #Feet

If you succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again; turn it new.
-- Ben Jonson

#Scratches #Crafts #Succeed

Cares that have entered once in the breast, will have whole possession of the rest.
-- Ben Jonson

#Anxiety #Care #Possession

True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.
-- Ben Jonson

#Perfect #Melancholy #Fine

It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.
-- Ben Jonson

#Understanding #Ears #Speak

Your highest female grace is silence.
-- Ben Jonson

#Silence #Grace #Female

No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech.
-- Ben Jonson

#Men #Glasses #Speech

Peace is never more than one thought away.
-- Ben Jonson

#Peace #Harmony