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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

Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.
BEN JONSON

Ancient Heaven Silent
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

Act Apes Courage Eye Mirror Time
A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
BEN JONSON

Eye Government Letter
I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
BEN JONSON

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

Affected Eloquence Foolish
No man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
BEN JONSON

Easily May Men Taught Wise
Truth is man’s proper good, and the only immortal thing was given to our mortality to use.
BEN JONSON

Men Truth Use
Men that talk of their own benefits are not believed to talk of them because they have done them, but to have done them because they might talk of them.
BEN JONSON

Benefits Done Men
Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.
BEN JONSON

Sight Swans Sweet
Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.
BEN JONSON

Clothes Countenance Wit
When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
BEN JONSON

Enemy Grief Men
Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.
BEN JONSON

Disease Mean Music
There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
BEN JONSON

Fear Hell No Prisoner
Aristotle was the first accurate critic and truest judge nay, the greatest philosopher the world ever had; for he noted the vices of all knowledges, in all creatures, and out of many men’s perfections in a science he formed still one Art.
BEN JONSON

Art Judging Men
Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
BEN JONSON

Art Eye Neglect Simplicity Sweet
I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.
BEN JONSON

Glory Greed Wealth

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.

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Popular Authors

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