black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Ben Jonson

Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.
BEN JONSON

Ancient Heaven Silent
Greatness of name, in the father, ofttimes helps not forth, but overwhelms the son: They stand too near one another. The shadow kills the growth.
BEN JONSON

Father Greatness Son
Still may syllables jar with time, Still may reason war with rhyme, Resting never!
BEN JONSON

May Poetry War
Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.
BEN JONSON

Art Common Lying Security Sleep
Guilt’s a terrible thing.
BEN JONSON

Guilt Terrible Things
Force works on servile natures, not the free.
BEN JONSON

Force Free Nature Servile
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

Dream Life Struggle Vanish
Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example.
BEN JONSON

Age Example Fallen Good Youth
Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: ‘Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.
BEN JONSON

Applause Crowns Mind Virtue
To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.
BEN JONSON

Long Pleasure Treasure
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.
BEN JONSON

Black Brain House
There is no doctrine will do good where nature is wanting.
BEN JONSON

Creeds Doctrine Good Waiting
He was not of an age, but for all time!
BEN JONSON

Age Time
Fortune, that favors fools.
BEN JONSON

Favors Fool Fortune
That old bald cheater, Time.
BEN JONSON

Bald Cheater Old Time
A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t’ his other virtues, They’re all unseason’d without it.
BEN JONSON

Men Salt Way

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ben Jonson Quotes