Ben Jonson Quotes

I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.

Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example.

Whom the disease of talking still once posses-seth, he can never hold his peace.

Spread yourself upon his bosom publicly, whose heart you would eat in private.

A good man should and must Sit rather down with loss than rise unjust.

Greatness of name, in the father, ofttimes helps not forth, but overwhelms the son: They stand too near one another. The shadow kills the growth.

I perceive affection makes a fool Of any man too much the father.

Passions are spiritual rebels and raise sedition against the understanding.

True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.

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

Whom hatred frights, let him not dream of sovereignty.

Freedom doth with degree dispense.

Very few men are wise by their own council, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master.

No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech.

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

Love that is ignorant and hatred have almost the same ends.

All discourses but my own afflict me; they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome

Tell troth and shame the devil.

Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .

Reader look, not on his picture but his book.

I'll give anything for a good copy now, be it true or false, so it be news.

It is as great a spite to be praised in the wrong place, and by a wrong person, as can be done to a noble nature.

The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray; And so do I.

Guilt's a terrible thing.

Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.

Prevent your day at morning.

The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.

Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom.

There is no doctrine will do good where nature is wanting.

And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow'd them with her odorous foot.

If you succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again; turn it new.

Were Guilt is, Rage and Courage doth abound.

Words borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes.

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.

Language most shews a man: Speak, that I may see thee.

There was never a great genius without a touch of madness.

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.

Underneath this stone doth lie As much beauty as could die.

Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.

He was not of an age but for all time.

Drink to me only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine.

But I do hate him as I hate the devil.

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.

Memory of all the powers of the mind is the most delicate and frail.

He was not of an age but for all time!

Hang sorrow care'll kill a cat.

Language most shows a man: speak that I may see thee.

Dowling 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.

I glory more in the coming purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.

A woman the more careful she is about her face is commonly the more careless about her house.