Ben Jonson Quotes & Sayings

Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast,
Still to be powder'd, all perfum'd.
Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound. — Ben Jonson

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

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

Man and wife make one fool. — Ben Jonson

He that is respectless in his courses oft sells his reputation at cheap market. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

A Song To Celia
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.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine:
But might I of Jove's nectar sup
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be
But thou thereon didst only breath
And sent'st it back to me:
Since, when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself but thee. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen. — Ben Jonson

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

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

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

The covetous man never has money. The prodigal will have none shortly. — Ben Jonson

'Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

Poor worms, they hiss at me, whilst I at home Can be contented to applaud myself, ... with joy To see how plump my bags are and my barns. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity. — Ben Jonson

Calumnies are answered best with silence. — Ben Jonson

AMBITION MAKES MORE TRUSTY SLAVES THAN NEED — Ben Jonson

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

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things. — Ben Jonson

That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy will be at last bestowed by time. — Ben Jonson

Whom the disease of talking still once posses-seth, he can never hold his peace. — Ben Jonson

Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back. — Ben Jonson

Force works on servile natures, not the free. — Ben Jonson

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

Tis no sin love's fruits to steal; But the sweet thefts to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been. — Ben Jonson

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

He threatens many that hath injured one. — Ben Jonson

For this I find, where jealousy is fed,
Horns in the mind are worse than on the head. — Ben Jonson

Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words ... — Ben Jonson

It strikes! one, two, Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch, Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now sleep and rest; Would thou could'st make the time to do so too; I'll wind thee up no more. — Ben Jonson

Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee — Ben Jonson

MOS: And besides, sir, You are not like a thresher that doth stand With a huge flail, watching a heap of corn, And, hungry, dares not taste the smallest grain, But feeds on mallows, and such bitter herbs; Nor like the merchant, who hath fill'd his vaults With Romagnia, and rich Candian wines, Yet drinks the lees of Lombard's vinegar: You will not lie in straw, whilst moths and worms Feed on your sumptuous hangings and soft beds; You know the use of riches, and dare give now From that bright heap, to me, your poor observer, Or to your dwarf, or your hermaphrodite, Your eunuch, or what other household-trifle Your pleasure allows maintenance. — Ben Jonson

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. — 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 perceive affection makes a fool Of any man too much the father. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good. They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own. — 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

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. — Ben Jonson

Weigh the meaning and look not at the words. — Ben Jonson

Passions are spiritual rebels and raise sedition against the understanding. — Ben Jonson

Fortune, that favors fools. — Ben Jonson

Honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times. — Ben Jonson

He that departs with his own honesty For Vulgar , doth it too dearly buy. — Ben Jonson

Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit. — Ben Jonson

I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence. — Ben Jonson

Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were
To see thee in our water yet appear. — 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

How Fortune piles her sports when she begins to practise them! — Ben Jonson

The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator. — Ben Jonson

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. — 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

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

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

The way to rise is to obey and please. — Ben Jonson

And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek. — Ben Jonson

[The play] is like to be a very conceited scurvy one, in plain English. — Ben Jonson

Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing. — Ben Jonson

I do honour the very flea of his dog. — Ben Jonson

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

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. — 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

Language most shews a man: Speak, that I may see thee. — Ben Jonson

Peace is never more than one thought away. — Ben Jonson

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

O! How vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do. — Ben Jonson

There is no doctrine will do good where nature is wanting. — Ben Jonson

Apes are apes, though clothed in scarlet. — Ben Jonson

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

Soul of the age! The applause! delight! The wonder of our stage! — Ben Jonson

Many might go to heaven with half the labor they go to hell. — Ben Jonson

A good king is a public servant. — Ben Jonson

Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both. — Ben Jonson

If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick. — Ben Jonson

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? — Ben Jonson

The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him. — Ben Jonson

Prevent your day at morning. — Ben Jonson

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

My thoughts and I were of another world. — Ben Jonson

Freedom doth with degree dispense. — 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

Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example. — Ben Jonson

Ods me I marle what pleasure or felicity they have in taking their roguish tobacco. It is good for nothing but to choke a man, and fill him full of smoke and embers. — Ben Jonson

That I might live alone once with my gold!
O, 'tis a sweet companion! kind and true:
A man may trust it when his father cheats him,
Brother, or friend, or wife. O wondrous pelf!
That which makes all men false, is true itself. — Ben Jonson

I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them. — Ben Jonson

No, I do know that I was born
To age, misfortune, sickness, grief:
But I will bear these with that scorn
As shall not need thy false relief.
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. — Ben Jonson

It holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation, which inwardly is most dear to us. — Ben Jonson

Very few men are wise by their own council, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master. — Ben Jonson

I have no urns, no dusty monuments;
No broken images of ancestors,
Wanting an ear, or nose; no forged tales
Of long descents, to boast false honors from. — Ben Jonson

Who casts to write a living line, must sweat. — Ben Jonson

Neither do thou lust after that tawny weed tobacco. — Ben Jonson

A woman, the more curious she is about her face, is commonly the more careless about her house. — Ben Jonson

Sweet meat must have sour sauce. — Ben Jonson

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