Jonson E Quotes & Sayings

Men that talk of their own benefits are not believed to talk of them because they have done them, but to have done them because they might talk of them. — Ben Jonson

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

Hell itself must yield to industry. — Ben Jonson

Our whole life is like a play. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apes are apes, though clothed in scarlet. — 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

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

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

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