110+ Ben Jonson Quotes On Shakespeare, Creative And Witty

Ben Jonson was an English poet, playwright and actor of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was one of the most popular writers of the Jacobean era and is best known for his satirical plays such as Volpone and The Alchemist, as well as his lyric poems and epigrams. Jonson was a key figure in the literary culture of the time, influencing many of his contemporaries, such as William Shakespeare. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Ben Jonson on shakespeare, creative, witty.

Top 10 Ben Jonson Quotes

1. To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
2. Honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.
3. True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.
4. The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.
8. The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
9. He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
10. Blueness doth express trueness.

Ben Jonson Short Quotes

• Calumnies are answered best with silence.
• Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.
• Get money, still get money, boy, no matter by what means.
• Of all wild beasts preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame a flatterer.
• A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
• They that know no evil will suspect none.
• Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.
• Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.
• We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
• The Devil is an Ass , I do acknowledge it.

Ben Jonson Quotes About Disease

If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick — 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

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

A new disease? I know not, new or old, but it may well be called poor mortals plague for, like a pestilence, it does 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

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

Ben Jonson Quotes About Hath

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

He threatens many that hath injured one. — 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

Success hath made me wanton. — 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

I am beholden to calumny, that she hath so endeavored to belie me.-It shall make me set a surer guard on myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions. — 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

Art hath an enemy call'd ignorance . — Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson Quotes About Friends

Drink today, and drown all sorrow; You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow; Best, while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death. — Ben Jonson

When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity. — 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

Ben Jonson Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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. — 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

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

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. — Ben Jonson

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. — Ben Jonson

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. — 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. — Ben Jonson

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

Tis not the wholesome sharp mortality, Or modest anger of a satiric spirit, That hurts or wounds the body of a state, But the sinister application Of the malicious, ignorant, and base Interpreter; who will distort and strain The general scope and purpose of an author To his particular and private spleen. — Ben Jonson

A good dog deserves a good bone. — Ben Jonson

Blueness does express trueness. — Ben Jonson

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

Who will not judge him worthy to be robbed That sets his doors wide open to a thief, And shows the felon where his treasure lies? — Ben Jonson

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! — Ben Jonson

All concord's born of contraries. — Ben Jonson

You are not now to think what's best to do, As in beginnings, but what must be done, Being thus enter'd; and slip no advantage That may secure you. Let them call it mischief; When it is past, and prosper'd , 'twill be virtue. — Ben Jonson

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

Let argument bear no unmusical sound. — 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

Folly often goes beyond her bounds, but impudence knows none. — 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

O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion! — Ben Jonson

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

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

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

Soul of the age! The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage! My Shakespeare , rise; I will not lodge thee by Chaucer or Spenser , or bid Beaumont lie A little further, to make thee a room; Thou art a monument, without a tomb, And art alive still, while thy book doth live, And we have wits to read , and praise to give . — Ben Jonson

Many might go to heaven with half the labour they go to hell, if they would venture their industry the right way. — Ben Jonson

Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too. — Ben Jonson

One woman reads another's character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering — 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

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

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

Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet's horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted. — 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

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

Vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment. — 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

The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade. — Ben Jonson

Sweet meat must have sour sauce. — 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

How near to good is what is fair! — Ben Jonson

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

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

Good men but see death, the wicked taste it. — Ben Jonson

There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue; and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it? — Ben Jonson

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

Cut Men's throats with whisperings. — Ben Jonson

A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t' his other virtues, They're all unseason'd without it. — Ben Jonson

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

Hang sorrow, care'll kill a cat. — Ben Jonson

Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes. For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best. — Ben Jonson

Minds that are great and free, should not on fortune pause: 'Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause. — Ben Jonson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Silence in woman is like speech in man. — Ben Jonson

That old bald cheater, Time. — Ben Jonson

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

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

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

And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow'd them with her odorous foot. — Ben Jonson

A good life is a main argument. — Ben Jonson

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

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

The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting. — 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

I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue. — Ben Jonson

Poets are far rarer birds than kings. — Ben Jonson

If you succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again; turn it new. — Ben Jonson

I feel my griefs too, and there scarce is ground Upon my flesh t'inflict another wound. Yet dare I not complain, or wish for death With holy Paul; lest it be thought the breath Of discontent; or that these prayers be For weariness of life, not love of thee. — Ben Jonson

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

Life Lessons by Ben Jonson

1. Ben Jonson taught us to be humble and honest in our work, to strive for excellence and to be open to learning from others.
2. He also believed in the power of friendship, and encouraged us to be generous and supportive of our peers.
3. Finally, he showed us that it is important to be mindful of our mortality and to make the most of the time we have.