Best 194 quotes of Ben Jonson on MyQuotes

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

A good dog deserves a good bone.

A good king is a public servant.

A good life is a main argument.

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

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.

A good poet's made as well as born.

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.

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

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

Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back; And is a swelling, and the last affection A high mind can put off; being both a rebel Unto the soul and reason, and enforceth All laws, all conscience, treads upon religion, and offereth violence to nature's self.

Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.

Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need

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

A new disease? I know not, new or old, but it may well be called poor mortals plague for, like a pestilence, it doth infect the houses of the brain till not a thought, or motion, in the mind, be free from the black poison of suspect.

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

Aristotle was the first accurate critic and truest judge nay, the greatest philosopher the world ever had; for he noted the vices of all knowledges, in all creatures, and out of many men's perfections in a science he formed still one Art.

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.

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

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.

Blueness doth express trueness.

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

Calumnies are answered best with silence.

Cares that have entered once in the breast, will have whole possession of the rest.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Cut Men's throats with whisperings.

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-.

Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Forbear, you things That stand upon the pinnacles of state, To boast your slippery height! when you do fall, You dash yourselves in pieces, ne'er to rise: And he that lends you pity, is not wise.

Force works on servile natures, not the free.

Fortune, that favors fools.

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

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

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

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.

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

Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.

Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.

Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.

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.

Guilt's a terrible thing.

Hang sorrow, care'll kill a cat.