Best quotes by Ben Jonson

Fortune, that favors fools.

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

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.

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.

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.

A good dog deserves a good bone.

That old bald cheater, Time.

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

I do honor the very flea of his dog.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.

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

A good poet's made as well as born.

What excellent fools religion makes of men.

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

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

True gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.

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

A good life is a main argument.

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

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.

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

Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.

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

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

I know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man's life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.

Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.

To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life's salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that's vanished- To endure, and go calmly on!

No man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.

Calumnies are answered best with silence.

My thoughts and I were of another world.

The voice so sweet, the words so fair, As some soft chime had stroked the air; And though the sound had parted thence, Still left an echo in the sense.

Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.

The way to rise is to obey and please.

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

Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.

Force works on servile natures, not the free.

Peace is never more than one thought away.

He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

A good king is a public servant.

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.

They, who know no evil, will suspect none.

You learn nothing about someone by the way they win the fight, you learn everything about the way they lose and keep coming back.

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.

To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.