Tell troth and shame the devil.

Ben Jonson

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Forbear, you things That stand upon the pinnacles of state, To boast your slippery height! when you do fall, You dash yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise: And he that lends you pity, is not wise.

BEN JONSON

Forbear, you things That stand upon the pinnacles of state, To boast your slippery height! when you do fall, You dash yourselves in pieces, ne’er to rise: And he that lends you pity, is not wise.
BEN JONSON

Boast Pieces
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 JONSON

Glasses
Peace is never more than one thought away.

BEN JONSON

Peace is never more than one thought away.
BEN JONSON

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

BEN JONSON

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

Being
Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.

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

Mean
To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.
BEN JONSON
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

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
For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such, As what he loves may never like too much.
BEN JONSON

May Sake
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 JONSON

Slumber
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

Stills Wanderers
Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man.
BEN JONSON

Good Man
Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.

BEN JONSON

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

Fats Mischief
Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.
BEN JONSON

Valor
Force works on servile natures, not the free.

BEN JONSON

Force works on servile natures, not the free.
BEN JONSON

Free Servile
The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
BEN JONSON

Infinite
I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.

BEN JONSON

I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
BEN JONSON

Tell troth and shame the devil.

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