Jonson Quotes & Sayings

All concord's born of contraries. — Ben Jonson

There is a very simple reason why Lion El'Jonson did not take part in the final battles of the Horus Heresy. It is beautifully simple, when you consider it. He was waiting.'
'Waiting for what?' Boreas asked quietly.
'He was waiting to see which side won, of course. — Gav Thorpe

The soul of man is infinite in what it covets. — Ben Jonson

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

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

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

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

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

Hell itself must yield to industry. — Ben Jonson

I now think, Love is rather deaf, than blind, For else it could not be, That she, Whom I adore so much, should so slight me, And cast my love behind. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets;Jonson was theVirgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare. — John Dryden

She is a woman of an excellent assurance, and an extraordinary happy wit, and tongue. Ben Jonson, Epicoene, or The Silent Woman — Robert Galbraith

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

Poets are far rarer birds than kings. — Ben Jonson

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make Man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
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 (Ben Jonson) — Aidan Chambers

Neither do thou lust after that tawny weed tobacco. — 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

He wil sooner lose his best friend, then his least jest. — Ben Jonson

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

Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man. — Ben Jonson

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

The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray; And so do I. — Ben Jonson

The best pilots have need of mariners, besides sails, anchor and other tackle. — Ben Jonson

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

Nothing is a courtesy unless it be meant us, and that friendly and lovingly. We owe no thanks to rivers that they carry our boats, or winds that they be favoring and fill our sails, or meats that they be nourishing; for these are what they are necessarily. Horses carry us, trees shade us; but they know it not. — Ben Jonson

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

Sweet meat must have sour sauce. — Ben Jonson

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

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

I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession. — 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

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. — Ben Jonson

Well, as he brews, so shall he drink. — 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

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

Nothing is more short-lived than pride. — Ben Jonson

A good king is a public servant. — 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

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

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

There was never a great genius without a touch of madness. — Ben Jonson

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

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

Indeed there's a woundy luck in names. — Ben Jonson

To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome. — Ben Jonson

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

A good life is a main argument. — Ben Jonson

Popular men, They must create strange monsters, and then quell them, To make their arts seem something. — Ben Jonson

Your highest female grace is silence. — 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

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

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

Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream. Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild. — John Milton

I do honour the very flea of his dog. — 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

Art hath an enemy called Ignorance. — 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

If one takes meaning into consideration, happiness might best be described as "a zest for life in all its complexity," as Sissela Bok writes in her book. To achieve it means to "attach our lives to something larger than ourselves." To be happy, one must do. It could be something as simple as teaching Sunday school or as grand as leading nonviolent protests. It could be as cerebral as seeking the cure for cancer or as physical as climbing mountains. It could be creating art. And it could be raising a child - my "best piece of poetrie," as Ben Jonson said in his elegy for his seven-year-old son. — Jennifer Senior

They that know no evil will suspect none. — Ben Jonson

Whom hatred frights, let him not dream of sovereignty. — 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

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. — Ben Jonson

How ready is heaven to those that pray! — Ben Jonson

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

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

Our whole life is like a play. — 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

Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times — Ben Jonson

No simple word
That shall be uttered at our mirthful board,
Shall make us sad next morning; or affright
The liberty that we'll enjoy to-night. — Ben Jonson

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

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

A good poet's made as well as born. — Ben Jonson

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. — 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

For he that once is good, is ever great. — 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

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

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

Success hath made me wanton. — 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

Tell troth and shame the devil. — Ben Jonson

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

Like every great writer before or since, Jonson understood that the best poets 'are both made and born'. That all great writing has to be hammered out and all great poets stand or fall by that 'second heat', their laboured revision. — James Shapiro

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

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

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

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.
Earth, let not thy envious shade
Dare itself to interpose,
Cynthia's shining orb was made
Heaven to clear when day did close:
Bless us then with wished sight,
Goddess excellently bright.
Lay thy bow of pearl apart,
And thy crystal-shining quiver,
Give unto the flying hart
Space to breath, how short soever:
Thou that mak'st a day of night-
Goddess excellently bright. — Ben Jonson

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