Top 229 Quotes & Sayings by Ben Jonson - Page 2

Confound these ancestors... They've stolen our best ideas!

To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.

Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

If men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man's being a good poet without first being a good man.

A good life is a main argument.

A good poet's made as well as born.

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.

Well, I will scourge those apes, And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror, As large as is the stage whereon we act; Where they shall see the time's deformity Anatomised in every nerve, and sinew, With constant courage, and contempt of fear.

Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.

The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.

No man is so foolish but may give another good counsel sometimes; and no man is so wise, but may easily err, if he will take no others counsel but his own. But very few men are wise by their own counsel; or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself had a fool to his master.

It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused; the understanding is not.

The world knows only two, that's Rome and I.

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

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.

Woman, the more careful she is about her face, the more careless about her house.

A good dog deserves a good bone.

If I freely may discover What should please me in my lover, I would have her fair and witty, Savouring more of court than city; A little proud, but full of pity; Light and humorous in her toying, Oft building hopes, and soon destroying, Long, but sweet in the enjoying; Neither too easy nor to hard; All extremes I would have barr'd.

Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.

Queen and huntress, chaste and fair Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light Goddess, excellently bright.

I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.

In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.

Come, my Celia, let us prove, While we can, the sports of love, Time will not be ours for ever, He, at length, our good will sever; Spend not then his gifts in vain: Suns that set may rise again; But if once we lose this light, 'Tis with us perpetual night. Why should we defer our joys? Fame and rumour are but toys.

That old bald cheater, Time.

Get money, still get money, boy, no matter by what means.

Let those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink

A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.

I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never plotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand.

Chance will not do the work. Chance sends the breeze; But if the pilot slumber at the helm, The very wind that wafts us tow'rds the port May dash us on the shoals. The steersman's part Is vigilance, or blow it rough or smooth.

Princes that would their people should do well Must at themselves begin, as at the head; For men, by their example, pattern out Their limitations, and regard of laws: A virtuous court a world to virtue draws.

I do honor the very flea of his dog.

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

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

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.

Our whole life is like a play.

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

A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it fall and die that night, It was the plant and flower of light. In small proportions we just beauties see, And in short measures life may perfect be.

There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue; and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it?

Sweet meat must have sour sauce.

Who casts to write a living line, must sweat.

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.

We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.

Man and wife make one fool.

Let argument bear no unmusical sound.

Each petty hand Can steer a ship becalm'd; but he that will Govern and carry her to her ends, must know His tides, his currents, how to shift his sails; What she will bear in foul, what in fair weathers; Where her springs are, her leaks, and how to stop 'em; What strands, what shelves, what rocks do threaten her.

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

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

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.

Many might go to heaven with half the labour they go to hell, if they would venture their industry the right way.

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

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

Your highest female grace is silence.

How ready is heaven to those that pray!

Follow a shadow, it still flies you, Seem to fly, it will pursue: So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you. Say are not women truly, then, Styled but the shadows of us men?

Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need

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

Art hath an enemy call'd ignorance .

It strikes! one, two, Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch, Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now sleep and rest; Would thou could'st make the time to do so too; I'll wind thee up no more.

Tis no sin love's fruits to steal; But the sweet thefts to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.

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