Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.
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.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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Who casts to write a living line, must sweat.
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Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.
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[The play] is like to be a very conceited scurvy one, in plain English.
BEN JONSON -
Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example.
BEN JONSON -
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 -
The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
BEN JONSON -
In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.
BEN JONSON -
Freedom doth with degree dispense.
BEN JONSON -
Rich apparel has strange virtues; it makes him that hath it without means esteemed for an excellent wit; he that enjoys it with means puts the world in remembrance of his means.
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For he that once is good, is ever great.
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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.
BEN JONSON -
Fortune, that favors fools.
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Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.
BEN JONSON -
Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I’ll not look for wine.
BEN JONSON -
Cares that have entered once in the breast, will have whole possession of the rest.
BEN JONSON