I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never plotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand.
BEN JONSONO, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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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.
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Woman, the more careful she is about her face, the more careless about her house.
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Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
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A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t’ his other virtues, They’re all unseason’d without it.
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Tis no sin love’s fruits to steal; But the sweet thefts to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.
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Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
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Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.
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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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Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike; One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.
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Cares that have entered once in the breast, will have whole possession of the rest.
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The covetous man never has money. The prodigal will have none shortly.
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The way to rise is to obey and please.
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Let argument bear no unmusical sound.
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Affliction teacheth a wicked person sometime to pray; prosperity never.
BEN JONSON