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It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.

Ben Jonson

Man and wife make one fool.
BEN JONSON

Marriage Men Wife
That old bald cheater, Time.
BEN JONSON

Bald Cheater Old Time
True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
BEN JONSON

Friendship Happiness Positive
I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
BEN JONSON

Compassion Justice Weakness
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
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.
BEN JONSON

Example Law Men Patteren People
Cut Men’s throats with whisperings.
BEN JONSON

Cutting Men Whispering
I do honor the very flea of his dog.
BEN JONSON

Dog Hero Honor
Very few men are wise by their own council, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master.
BEN JONSON

Men Teaching Wise
Money never made any man rich, but his mind. He that can order himself to the law of nature, is not only without the sense, but the fear of poverty.
BEN JONSON

Law Men Mind Order Sense
Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
BEN JONSON

Art Eye Neglect Simplicity Sweet
How ready is heaven to those that pray!
BEN JONSON

Heaven Prayer Praying
Our whole life is like a play.
BEN JONSON

Life Play Whole
And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow’d them with her odorous foot.
BEN JONSON

Feet Flower Roots
I have no urns, no dusty monuments; No broken images of ancestors, Wanting an ear, or nose; no forged tales Of long descents, to boast false honors from.
BEN JONSON

Broken Honor Long
Silence in woman is like speech in man.
BEN JONSON

Men Silence Speech
Force works on servile natures, not the free.
BEN JONSON

Force Free Nature Servile
Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.
BEN JONSON

Death Good Man Men
Freedom doth with degree dispense.
BEN JONSON

Degree Dispense Freedom
The burnt child dreads the fire.
BEN JONSON

Children Dread Fire
Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.
BEN JONSON

Courage Suffering Valor
Calumnies are answered best with silence.
BEN JONSON

Advice Silence
That I might live alone once with my gold! O, ’tis a sweet companion! kind and true: A man may trust it when his father cheats him, Brother, or friend, or wife. O wondrous pelf! That which makes all men false, is true itself.
BEN JONSON

Alone Brother Companions Money Sweet
No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.
BEN JONSON

Glasses Men Speech
Let those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink
BEN JONSON

Anarchy Drinking Thinking
Tell troth and shame the devil.
BEN JONSON

Devil Shame Truth
For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style.
BEN JONSON

Exercise Men Writing

It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.

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It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.

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Popular Authors

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