True gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.
BEN JONSONQueen 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.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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No simple word That shall be uttered at our mirthful board, Shall make us sad next morning; or affright The liberty that we’ll enjoy to-night.
BEN JONSON -
All the wise world is little else, in nature, But parasites or subparasites.
BEN JONSON -
The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade.
BEN JONSON -
A thankful man owes a courtesy ever; the unthankful but when he needs it.
BEN JONSON -
If you succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again; turn it new.
BEN JONSON -
Where it concerns himself, Who’s angry at a slander, makes it true.
BEN JONSON -
Vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.
BEN JONSON -
Tell troth and shame the devil.
BEN JONSON -
Freedom doth with degree dispense.
BEN JONSON -
Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.
BEN JONSON -
In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.
BEN JONSON -
Hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat.
BEN JONSON -
Fortune, that favors fools.
BEN JONSON -
The burnt child dreads the fire.
BEN JONSON -
Let those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink
BEN JONSON -
I have been at my book; and am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honour and reputation
BEN JONSON -
How ready is heaven to those that pray!
BEN JONSON -
One woman reads another’s character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering
BEN JONSON -
Well, I will scourge those apes, And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror, As large as is the stage whereon we act; Where they shall see the time’s deformity Anatomised in every nerve, and sinew, With constant courage, and contempt of fear.
BEN JONSON -
It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us.
BEN JONSON -
Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
BEN JONSON -
All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
BEN JONSON -
As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it.
BEN JONSON -
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 -
Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee; it springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.
BEN JONSON -
[The play] is like to be a very conceited scurvy one, in plain English.
BEN JONSON