No simple word That shall be uttered at our mirthful board, Shall make us sad next morning; or affright The liberty that we’ll enjoy to-night.
BEN JONSONFor 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.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.
BEN JONSON -
A new disease? I know not, new or old, but it may well be called poor mortals plague for, like a pestilence, it doth infect the houses of the brain till not a thought, or motion, in the mind, be free from the black poison of suspect.
BEN JONSON -
It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.
BEN JONSON -
You learn nothing about someone by the way they win the fight, you learn everything about the way they lose and keep coming back.
BEN JONSON -
All the wise world is little else, in nature, But parasites or subparasites.
BEN JONSON -
God wisheth none should wreck on a strange shelf: To him man’s dearer than to himself.
BEN JONSON -
Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, Still to be powder’d, all perfum’d. Lady, it is to be presumed, Though art’s hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.
BEN JONSON -
Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.
BEN JONSON -
Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
BEN JONSON -
A good dog deserves a good bone.
BEN JONSON -
Confound these ancestors… They’ve stolen our best ideas!
BEN JONSON -
Poor worms, they hiss at me, whilst I at home Can be contented to applaud myself, . . . with joy To see how plump my bags are and my barns.
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 -
The world knows only two, that’s Rome and I.
BEN JONSON -
Many punishments sometimes, and in some cases, as much discredit a prince as many funerals a physician.
BEN JONSON -
To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
BEN JONSON -
In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.
BEN JONSON -
A good king is a public servant.
BEN JONSON -
Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.
BEN JONSON -
I do honor the very flea of his dog.
BEN JONSON -
The Devil is an Ass , I do acknowledge it.
BEN JONSON -
The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.
BEN JONSON -
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.
BEN JONSON -
It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.
BEN JONSON -
Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
BEN JONSON -
Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need
BEN JONSON