The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator.
BEN JONSONThe dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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Forbear, 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.
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Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
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You are not now to think what’s best to do, As in beginnings, but what must be done, Being thus enter’d; and slip no advantage That may secure you. Let them call it mischief; When it is past, and prosper’d , ’twill be virtue.
BEN JONSON -
Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need
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Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.
BEN JONSON -
Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .
BEN JONSON -
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.
BEN JONSON -
Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.
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Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.
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Affliction teacheth a wicked person sometime to pray; prosperity never.
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It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us.
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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
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I feel my griefs too, and there scarce is ground Upon my flesh t’inflict another wound. Yet dare I not complain, or wish for death With holy Paul; lest it be thought the breath Of discontent; or that these prayers be For weariness of life, not love of thee.
BEN JONSON -
Let those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink
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In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.
BEN JONSON