Ben Jonson Quotes

174 Sourced Quotes

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.

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

Ben Jonson
It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.

Ben Jonson
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.

Ben Jonson
Take heed, sickness, what you do, I shall fear you'll surfeit too. Live not we, as all they stalls, Spittles, pest-house, Hospitals, Scarce will take our present store?

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

Ben Jonson
All the wise world is little else, in nature, But parasites or subparasites.

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

Ben Jonson
I am beholden to calumny, that she hath so endeavored to belie me.-It shall make me set a surer guard on myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions.

Ben Jonson
A good man will avoid the spot of any sin. The very aspersion is grievous, which makes him choose his way in his life, as he would in his journey.

Ben Jonson
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men;
But at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met.

Ben Jonson
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.

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

Ben Jonson
One woman reads another's character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering

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

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

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

Ben Jonson
Men that talk of their own benefits are not believed to talk of them because they have done them, but to have done them because they might talk of them.

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

Ben Jonson
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.

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
JUS:.the lungs of the tobacconist are rotted, the liver spotted, the brain smoked like the backside of the pig-woman's booth, here, and the whole body within, black as her pan you saw e'en now, without.

Ben Jonson
Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes. For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best.

Ben Jonson
Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.

Ben Jonson
Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.

Ben Jonson
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.

Ben Jonson
Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short; And done, we straight repent us of the sport: Let us not rush blindly on unto it, Like lustful beasts, that only know to do it: For lust will languish, and that heat decay, But thus, thus, keeping endless Holy-.

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
Vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.

Ben Jonson