All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
BEN JONSONThere is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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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.
BEN JONSON -
The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
BEN JONSON -
I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.
BEN JONSON -
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 -
In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.
BEN JONSON -
How Fortune piles her sports when she begins to practise them!
BEN JONSON -
I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never plotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand.
BEN JONSON -
My thoughts and I were of another world.
BEN JONSON -
Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.
BEN JONSON -
When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.
BEN JONSON -
Get money, still get money, boy, no matter by what means.
BEN JONSON -
If all you boast of your great art be true; Sure, willing poverty lives most in you.
BEN JONSON -
Affliction teacheth a wicked person sometime to pray; prosperity never.
BEN JONSON -
Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .
BEN JONSON -
Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
BEN JONSON -
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 -
Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.
BEN JONSON -
That old bald cheater, Time.
BEN JONSON -
Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.
BEN JONSON -
For he that once is good, is ever great.
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 -
Guilt’s a terrible thing.
BEN JONSON -
The Devil is an Ass , I do acknowledge it.
BEN JONSON -
The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade.
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 -
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