How near to good is what is fair!
BEN JONSONWho will not judge him worthy to be robbed That sets his doors wide open to a thief, And shows the felon where his treasure lies?
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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I know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man’s life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.
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He that is respectless in his courses oft sells his reputation at cheap market.
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The voice so sweet, the words so fair, As some soft chime had stroked the air; And though the sound had parted thence, Still left an echo in the sense.
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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.
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I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.
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As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it.
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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?
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Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death.
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A good man should and must Sit rather down with loss than rise unjust.
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Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .
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I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
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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.
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All concord’s born of contraries.
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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?
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In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.
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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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Soul of the age! The applause! delight! The wonder of our stage!
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Freedom doth with degree dispense.
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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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Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
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Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I’ll not look for wine.
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I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.
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Your highest female grace is silence.
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The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray; And so do I.
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No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.
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To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life’s salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that’s vanished- To endure, and go calmly on!
BEN JONSON