Fortune, that favors fools.
BEN JONSONFortune, that favors fools.
BEN JONSONLanguage most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.
BEN JONSONA 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 JONSONThe pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
BEN JONSONArt hath an enemy call’d ignorance .
BEN JONSONAll concord’s born of contraries.
BEN JONSONReady writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing.
BEN JONSONHow ready is heaven to those that pray!
BEN JONSONWhom hatred frights, let him not dream of sovereignty.
BEN JONSONThe world knows only two, that’s Rome and I.
BEN JONSONWell, I will scourge those apes, And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror, As large as is the stage whereon we act; Where they shall see the time’s deformity Anatomised in every nerve, and sinew, With constant courage, and contempt of fear.
BEN JONSONIt is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.
BEN JONSONFear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.
BEN JONSONThat old bald cheater, Time.
BEN JONSONStill 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 JONSONVice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.
BEN JONSON