[The play] is like to be a very conceited scurvy one, in plain English.
BEN JONSONThe voice so sweet, the words so fair, As some soft chime had stroked the air; And though the sound had parted thence, Still left an echo in the sense.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.
BEN JONSON -
Whom the disease of talking still once posses-seth, he can never hold his peace.
BEN JONSON -
The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
BEN JONSON -
Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet’s horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted.
BEN JONSON -
Your highest female grace is silence.
BEN JONSON -
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.
BEN JONSON -
Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.
BEN JONSON -
Freedom doth with degree dispense.
BEN JONSON -
Calumnies are answered best with silence.
BEN JONSON -
Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.
BEN JONSON -
Queen and huntress, chaste and fair Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light Goddess, excellently bright.
BEN JONSON -
… the best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle.
BEN JONSON -
The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator.
BEN JONSON -
How ready is heaven to those that pray!
BEN JONSON -
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.
BEN JONSON