I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.
BEN JONSONThe world knows only two, that’s Rome and I.
More Ben Jonson Quotes
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It is a note Of upstart greatness to observe and watch For these poor trifles, which the noble mind Neglects and scorns.
BEN JONSON -
… the best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle.
BEN JONSON -
As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it.
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 -
He that departs with his own honesty For Vulgar , doth it too dearly buy.
BEN JONSON -
Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.
BEN JONSON -
He threatens many that hath injured one.
BEN JONSON -
Who will not judge him worthy to be robbed That sets his doors wide open to a thief, And shows the felon where his treasure lies?
BEN JONSON -
Who casts to write a living line, must sweat.
BEN JONSON -
Ambition, like a torrent, ne’er looks back; And is a swelling, and the last affection A high mind can put off; being both a rebel Unto the soul and reason, and enforceth All laws, all conscience, treads upon religion, and offereth violence to nature’s self.
BEN JONSON -
The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
BEN JONSON -
O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
BEN JONSON -
The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.
BEN JONSON -
Reader look, not on his picture but his book.
BEN JONSON -
True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
BEN JONSON