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A good king is a public servant.

Ben Jonson

It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us.
BEN JONSON

Dear Estimation Hypocrisy
Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction.
BEN JONSON

Book Faithful May
And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow’d them with her odorous foot.
BEN JONSON

Feet Flower Roots
How ready is heaven to those that pray!
BEN JONSON

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

Force Free Nature Servile
Were Guilt is, Rage and Courage doth abound.
BEN JONSON

Guilt Guilty Shame
Still may syllables jar with time, Still may reason war with rhyme, Resting never!
BEN JONSON

May Poetry War
Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom.
BEN JONSON

Fortune Men
All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
BEN JONSON

Discourse Harsh Speech
Silence in woman is like speech in man.
BEN JONSON

Men Silence Speech
All the wise world is little else, in nature, But parasites or subparasites.
BEN JONSON

Little Wise World
A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t’ his other virtues, They’re all unseason’d without it.
BEN JONSON

Men Salt Way
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

Art Causes Drest Near Sweet
You are not now to think what’s best to do, As in beginnings, but what must be done, Being thus enter’d; and slip no advantage That may secure you. Let them call it mischief; When it is past, and prosper’d , ’twill be virtue.
BEN JONSON

Mischief Past Virtue
What excellent fools religion makes of men.
BEN JONSON

Men Religion Religious
Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
BEN JONSON

Live Pride Short

A good king is a public servant.

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A good king is a public servant.

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