Confound these ancestors… They’ve stolen our best ideas!
BEN JONSONCalumnies are answered best with silence.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow’d them with her odorous foot.
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Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
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Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
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Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.
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A good man should and must Sit rather down with loss than rise unjust.
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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.
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Follow a shadow, it still flies you, Seem to fly, it will pursue: So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you. Say are not women truly, then, Styled but the shadows of us men?
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It is as great a spite to be praised in the wrong place, and by a wrong person, as can be done to a noble nature.
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Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.
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The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.
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It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.
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True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.
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A new disease? I know not, new or old, but it may well be called poor mortals plague for, like a pestilence, it doth infect the houses of the brain till not a thought, or motion, in the mind, be free from the black poison of suspect.
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Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.
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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