I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
BEN JONSONTrue gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.
BEN JONSON -
Reader look, not on his picture but his book.
BEN JONSON -
The Devil is an Ass , I do acknowledge it.
BEN JONSON -
Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
BEN JONSON -
A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
BEN JONSON -
Art hath an enemy call’d ignorance .
BEN JONSON -
If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick
BEN JONSON -
That I might live alone once with my gold! O, ’tis a sweet companion! kind and true: A man may trust it when his father cheats him, Brother, or friend, or wife. O wondrous pelf! That which makes all men false, is true itself.
BEN JONSON -
Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee; it springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.
BEN JONSON -
Sweet meat must have sour sauce.
BEN JONSON -
It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.
BEN JONSON -
The burnt child dreads the fire.
BEN JONSON -
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.
BEN JONSON -
I perceive affection makes a fool Of any man too much the father.
BEN JONSON -
Calumnies are answered best with silence.
BEN JONSON -
Silence in woman is like speech in man.
BEN JONSON -
To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
BEN JONSON -
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 -
Freedom doth with degree dispense.
BEN JONSON -
Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.
BEN JONSON -
Your highest female grace is silence.
BEN JONSON -
Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike; One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.
BEN JONSON -
When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
BEN JONSON -
Hell itself must yield to industry.
BEN JONSON -
The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
BEN JONSON -
The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade.
BEN JONSON