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 JONSONHe was not of an age, but for all time!
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.
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Indeed there’s a woundy luck in names.
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Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man.
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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.
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Love that is ignorant and hatred have almost the same ends.
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It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good. They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own.
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Cares that have entered once in the breast, will have whole possession of the rest.
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In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.
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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.
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To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.
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Whom the disease of talking still once posses-seth, he can never hold his peace.
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A good life is a main argument.
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Vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.
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How Fortune piles her sports when she begins to practise them!
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Rich apparel has strange virtues; it makes him that hath it without means esteemed for an excellent wit; he that enjoys it with means puts the world in remembrance of his means.
BEN JONSON