A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t’ his other virtues, They’re all unseason’d without it.
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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For he that once is good, is ever great.
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… the best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle.
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Tell troth and shame the devil.
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Hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat.
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It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.
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It is as great a spite to be praised in the wrong place, and by a wrong person, as can be done to a noble nature.
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The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
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Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
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To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.
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Poets are far rarer birds than kings.
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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.
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Confound these ancestors… They’ve stolen our best ideas!
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For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best.
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I 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.
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Woman, the more careful she is about her face, the more careless about her house.
BEN JONSON