Force works on servile natures, not the free.
BEN JONSONForce works on servile natures, not the free.
BEN JONSONI see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
BEN JONSONHang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat.
BEN JONSONWine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet’s horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted.
BEN JONSONAmbition makes more trusty slaves than need
BEN JONSONFor they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best.
BEN JONSONIndeed there’s a woundy luck in names.
BEN JONSONSoul of the age! The applause! delight! The wonder of our stage!
BEN JONSONHe that is respectless in his courses oft sells his reputation at cheap market.
BEN JONSONTis no sin love’s fruits to steal; But the sweet thefts to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.
BEN JONSONHe who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
BEN JONSONOne woman reads another’s character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering
BEN JONSONChance 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 JONSONYour highest female grace is silence.
BEN JONSONSpread yourself upon his bosom publicly, whose heart you would eat in private.
BEN JONSONAmbition, like a torrent, never looks back.
BEN JONSON