Chance will not do the work. Chance sends the breeze; But if the pilot slumber at the helm, The very wind that wafts us tow’rds the port May dash us on the shoals. The steersman’s part Is vigilance, or blow it rough or smooth.
BEN JONSONFortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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A thankful man owes a courtesy ever; the unthankful but when he needs it.
BEN JONSON -
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.
BEN JONSON -
Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.
BEN JONSON -
Very few men are wise by their own council, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master.
BEN JONSON -
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?
BEN JONSON -
Silence in woman is like speech in man.
BEN JONSON -
A good life is a main argument.
BEN JONSON -
Nor for my peace will I go far, As wanderers do, that still do roam, But make my strengths, such as they are, Here in my bosom, and at home.
BEN JONSON -
Hell itself must yield to industry.
BEN JONSON -
I now think, Love is rather deaf, than blind, For else it could not be, That she, Whom I adore so much, should so slight me, And cast my love behind.
BEN JONSON -
A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
BEN JONSON -
Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing.
BEN JONSON -
If men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man’s being a good poet without first being a good man.
BEN JONSON -
Hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat.
BEN JONSON -
Ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing.
BEN JONSON