Ben Jonson Quotes

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

Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: 'Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

The covetous man never has money. The prodigal will have none shortly.

... the best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle.

Peace is never more than one thought away.

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.

Hell itself must yield to industry.

Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.

Our whole life is like a play.

I know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man's life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.

I do honor the very flea of his dog.

He that would have his virtue published, is not the servant of virtue, but glory.

Indeed there's a woundy luck in names.

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

For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style.

Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing.

A good king is a public servant.

True gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.

Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.

Who falls for love of God, shall rise a star.

Truth is man's proper good, and the only immortal thing was given to our mortality to use.

That old bald cheater, Time.

Your highest female grace is silence.

How ready is heaven to those that pray!

Man and wife make one fool.

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.

When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.

Popular men, They must create strange monsters, and then quell them, To make their arts seem something.

It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.

Who casts to write a living line, must sweat.

Ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing.

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

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

Many punishments sometimes, and in some cases, as much discredit a prince as many funerals a physician.

Art hath an enemy call'd ignorance .

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

A thankful man owes a courtesy ever; the unthankful but when he needs it.

I now think, Love is rather deaf, than blind, For else it could not be, That she, Whom I adore so much, should so slight me, And cast my love behind.

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.

Still may syllables jar with time, Still may reason war with rhyme, Resting never!

Poets are far rarer birds than kings.

I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.

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

God wisheth none should wreck on a strange shelf: To him man's dearer than to himself.

Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.

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.

Affliction teacheth a wicked person sometime to pray; prosperity never.

He was not of an age, but for all time!

Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money.

I have been at my book; and am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honour and reputation