Ben Jonson - Virtue Quotes

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I never thought an angry person valiant:
Virtue is never aided by a vice.

Ben Jonson
Not to know vice at all, and keep true state,
Is virtue, and not fate:
Next to that virtue is to know vice well,
And her black spite expel.

Ben Jonson
Let them call it mischief; when it is past and prospered, it will be virtue.

Ben Jonson
Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,
And almost every vice — almighty gold.

Ben Jonson
Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die;
Which in life did harbor give
To more virtue than doth live.

Ben Jonson
The players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been 'Would he had blotted a thousand'…But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.

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

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

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

Ben Jonson
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?

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

Ben Jonson