Who casts to write a living line, must sweat.
BEN JONSONHe that departs with his own honesty For Vulgar , doth it too dearly buy.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee; it springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.
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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.
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It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.
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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.
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God wisheth none should wreck on a strange shelf: To him man’s dearer than to himself.
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A thankful man owes a courtesy ever; the unthankful but when he needs it.
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I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.
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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.
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Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.
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Who will not judge him worthy to be robbed That sets his doors wide open to a thief, And shows the felon where his treasure lies?
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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 -
Honor’s a good brooch to wear in a man’s hat at all times.
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When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
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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.
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Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.
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Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
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We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
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All the wise world is little else, in nature, But parasites or subparasites.
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Confound these ancestors… They’ve stolen our best ideas!
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Spread yourself upon his bosom publicly, whose heart you would eat in private.
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It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us.
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O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
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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!
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Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
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Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet’s horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted.
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Success hath made me wanton.
BEN JONSON