To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
BEN JONSONForce works on servile natures, not the free.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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That old bald cheater, Time.
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Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes.
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When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
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It strikes! one, two, Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch, Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now sleep and rest; Would thou could’st make the time to do so too; I’ll wind thee up no more.
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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.
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It is a note Of upstart greatness to observe and watch For these poor trifles, which the noble mind Neglects and scorns.
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Indeed there’s a woundy luck in names.
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O! How vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do.
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I do honor the very flea of his dog.
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Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death.
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True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
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Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, Still to be powder’d, all perfum’d. Lady, it is to be presumed, Though art’s hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.
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… the best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle.
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[The play] is like to be a very conceited scurvy one, in plain English.
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The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
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Who will not judge him worthy to be robbed That sets his doors wide open to a thief, And shows the felon where his treasure lies?
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To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.
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Cut Men’s throats with whisperings.
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There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
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All concord’s born of contraries.
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Many punishments sometimes, and in some cases, as much discredit a prince as many funerals a physician.
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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.
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It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.
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The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray; And so do I.
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A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
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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