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Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: ‘Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

Ben Jonson

I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.
BEN JONSON

Affected Eloquence Foolish
It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us.
BEN JONSON

Dear Estimation Hypocrisy
Prevent your day at morning.
BEN JONSON

Day Morning Prevent
All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
BEN JONSON

Discourse Harsh Speech
Blueness doth express trueness.
BEN JONSON

Color Trueness
Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.
BEN JONSON

Leadership May Men
There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue; and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it?
BEN JONSON

Real Spices Virtue
It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good. They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own.
BEN JONSON

Ancestry Honor Noble
True gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.
BEN JONSON

Joy Speak Tongue
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.
BEN JONSON

Art Causes Drest Near Sweet
Follow a shadow, it still flies you, Seem to fly, it will pursue: So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you. Say are not women truly, then, Styled but the shadows of us men?
BEN JONSON

Men Mistress Shadow
True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
BEN JONSON

Friendship Happiness Positive
To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.
BEN JONSON

Change Men Want Welcome
Popular men, They must create strange monsters, and then quell them, To make their arts seem something.
BEN JONSON

Art Men Monsters
A good man will avoid the spot of any sin. The very aspersion is grievous, which makes him choose his way in his life, as he would in his journey.
BEN JONSON

Aspersion Choose Good Journey Men
Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example.
BEN JONSON

Age Example Fallen Good Youth

Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: ‘Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

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Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: ‘Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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