Tell troth and shame the devil.
BEN JONSONTell troth and shame the devil.
BEN JONSONMinds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: ‘Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.
BEN JONSONForbear, you things That stand upon the pinnacles of state, To boast your slippery height! when you do fall, You dash yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise: And he that lends you pity, is not wise.
BEN JONSONI know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man’s life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.
BEN JONSONTis no sin love’s fruits to steal; But the sweet thefts to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.
BEN JONSONA prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
BEN JONSONGood men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.
BEN JONSONI would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.
BEN JONSONSweet meat must have sour sauce.
BEN JONSONNor shall our cups make any guilty men; But at our parting, we will be, as when We innocently met.
BEN JONSONWhere 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 JONSONThey, who know no evil, will suspect none.
BEN JONSONWell, as he brews, so shall he drink.
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 JONSONHell itself must yield to industry.
BEN JONSONThe man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.
BEN JONSON