Ben Jonson

Art hath an enemy call'd ignorance.

— Ben Jonson

Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears: Since nature's pride is now, a withered daffodil.

— Ben Jonson

True happiness But in the worth and choice.

— Ben Jonson

Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, Goddess, excellently bright.

— Ben Jonson

That old bald cheater, Time.

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

Calumnies are answered best with silence.

— Ben Jonson

Preserving the sweetness of proportion and expressing itself beyond expression.

— Ben Jonson

Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast.

— Ben Jonson

Thou look'st like Antichrist in that lewd hat.

— Ben Jonson

Where it concerns himself, Who's angry at a slander makes it true.

— Ben Jonson

The dignity of truth is lost With much protesting.

— Ben Jonson

Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back; and offereth violence to nature's self.

— Ben Jonson

So breaks the sun earth's rugged chains, That are but looked on by his light.

— Ben Jonson

I will eat exceedingly, and prophesy.

— Ben Jonson

Reader, look, Not at his picture, but his book.

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

Truth is the trial of itself Refine it ne'er so much.

— Ben Jonson

The burnt child dreads the fire.

— Ben Jonson

The Devil is an Ass! fool'd off! and beaten!

— Ben Jonson

If he were I should not alter in my faith of him.

— Ben Jonson

The Devil is an Ass, I do acknowledge it.

— Ben Jonson

Pray thee, take care, that tak'st my book in hand, To read it well: that is, to understand.

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

There's reason good, that you good laws should make: Men's manners ne'er were viler, for your sake.

— Ben Jonson

He that fears death, or mourns it, in the just, Shows of the resurrection little trust.

— Ben Jonson

Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike; One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.

— Ben Jonson

The ports of death are sins; of life, good deeds: For good men but see death, the wicked taste it.

— Ben Jonson

Thus, in his belly, can he change a sin, Lust it comes out, that gluttony went in.

— Ben Jonson

Underneath this stone doth lie To more virtue than doth live.

— Ben Jonson

Come my Celia, let us prove, Fame and rumour are but toys.

— Ben Jonson

Follow a shadow, it still flies you; Let her alone, she will court you.

— Ben Jonson

Not to know vice at all, and keep true state, And her black spite expel.

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

For if I thought my judgment were of years, For names…

— Ben Jonson

'Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show As, since she will vouchsafe no other wit.

— Ben Jonson

I now think, Love is rather deaf, than blind, And cast my love behind.

— Ben Jonson

Where dost thou careless lie, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.

— Ben Jonson

Rhyme, the rack of finest wits, They were bound!

— Ben Jonson

Those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink.

— Ben Jonson

It is not growing like a tree And in short measures life may perfect be.

— Ben Jonson

The voice so sweet, the words so fair, Still left an echo in the sense.

— Ben Jonson

Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing.

— Ben Jonson

A good life is a main argument.

— Ben Jonson

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.

— Ben Jonson

A cripple in the way out-travels a footman or a post out of the way.

— Ben Jonson

He is a narrow-minded man, that affects a triumph in any glorious study; but to triumph in a lie, and a lie themselves have forged, is frontless. Folly often goes beyond her bounds; but Impudence knows none.

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honor 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".

— Ben Jonson

I loved the man and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any.

— Ben Jonson

They say princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.

— Ben Jonson

Greatness of name in the father oft-times overwhelms the son; they stand too near one another. The shadow kills the growth: so much, that we see the grandchild come more and oftener to be heir of the first.

— Ben Jonson

Though the most be players, some must be spectators.

— Ben Jonson

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks...

— Ben Jonson

Lady: How do's it fit? wilt come together? Prudence: Hardly. Lad: Thou must make shift with it. Pride feels no Pain.

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

That Shakespeare wanted Art.

— Ben Jonson

He cursed Petrarch for redacting verses to sonnets, which he said were like that tyrant's bed, where some who were too short were racked, others too long cut short.

— Ben Jonson

That Donne himself, for not being understood, would perish.

— Ben Jonson

Shakespeare, in a play, brought in a number of men saying they had suffered shipwreck in Bohemia, where there is no sea by some 100 miles.

— Ben Jonson

He hath consumed a whole night in lying looking to his great toe, about which he hath seen Tartars and Turks, Romans and Carthaginians, fight in his imagination.

— Ben Jonson

There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.

— Ben Jonson

True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.

— Ben Jonson