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Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.

Ben Jonson

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

Mean Remembrance Rich World
Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.
BEN JONSON

Envy Honor Two
To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
BEN JONSON

Communication Motivational Wise
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.
BEN JONSON

Ancestry Honor Noble
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 Men Spring
What excellent fools religion makes of men.
BEN JONSON

Men Religion Religious
Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.
BEN JONSON

Art Common Lying Security Sleep
Ods me I marle what pleasure or felicity they have in taking their roguish tobacco. It is good for nothing but to choke a man, and fill him full of smoke and embers.
BEN JONSON

Cigarette Smoke Men Smoking
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 Fall Pieces Wise
A good dog deserves a good bone.
BEN JONSON

Bones Canine Dog
True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.
BEN JONSON

Fine Melancholy Perfect Wit
Let argument bear no unmusical sound.
BEN JONSON

Argument Bears Sound
It is a note Of upstart greatness to observe and watch For these poor trifles, which the noble mind Neglects and scorns.
BEN JONSON

Greatness Mind Scorn Watches
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
Poets are far rarer birds than kings.
BEN JONSON

Bird Kings Poet
All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
BEN JONSON

Discourse Harsh Speech

Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.

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Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.

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