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Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.

Ben Jonson

If all you boast of your great art be true; Sure, willing poverty lives most in you.
BEN JONSON

Art Being Poverty True
Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes.
BEN JONSON

Past Winning Years
Let argument bear no unmusical sound.
BEN JONSON

Argument Bears Sound
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
For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style.
BEN JONSON

Exercise Men Writing
Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
BEN JONSON

Beast Fats Mischief
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
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
Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
BEN JONSON

Ambition Inspiration Looks
Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike; One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.
BEN JONSON

Praise Strikes Strokes
Spread yourself upon his bosom publicly, whose heart you would eat in private.
BEN JONSON

Heart Hypocrisy Spread
Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.
BEN JONSON

Looks Meaning Weigh
A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night, It was the plant and flower of light. In small proportions we just beauties see, And in short measures life may perfect be.
BEN JONSON

Die Fall Flower Night Proportion
Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
BEN JONSON

Court Deny Mistress
I am beholden to calumny, that she hath so endeavored to belie me.-It shall make me set a surer guard on myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions.
BEN JONSON

Action Calumny Watches
There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
BEN JONSON

Fear Hell No Prisoner

Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.

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Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.

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