Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,
And almost every vice, almighty gold ….Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
“Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland” (1599)
(Source)
Reprinted in The Forest, Poem 12.
Quotations by:
Jonson, Ben
Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die;
Which in life did harbor give
To more virtue than doth live.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
“Epitaph on Elizabeth, Lady H—,” ll. 3-6.
They that love Mirth, let them heartily Drink,
‘Tis the only Receipt to make Sorrow sink.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
“Private Entertainment of the King and Queen,” Highgate, London (1604-05-01)
(Source)
Receipt and recipe (both from the Latin recipe "you take this!") were originally used in English for medical formulations and prescriptions. "Receipt" was often abbreviated "Rt," which, as a ligature, looks like "℞" or "Rx" -- which is still used as an abbreviation a medical prescription.
No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and 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 (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
(Attributed)
Attributed in Tryon Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts (1891 ed.).
The dignity of truth is lost
With much protesting.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Catiline: His Conspiracy, Act 3, sc. 2 (1611)
True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Cynthia’s Revels, Act 3, sc. 2 (1600)
No greater hell than to be slave to fear.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Every Man in His Humour, 3.2 (1598)
Art hath an enemy called Ignorance.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Every Man in His Humour, Act 1, sc. 1 (1598)
Hang sorrow! care’ll kill a cat.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Every Man in His Humour, Act 1, sc. 3 (1598)
As he brews, so shall he drink.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Every Man in His Humour, Act 2, sc. 1 (1598)
Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need.
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy!
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envy?
To have soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age!
Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry:
For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio, Epigram 45, “On My First Son,” ll. 1-12 (1616)
Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike;
One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio, Epigram 61 “To Fool, or Knave” (1616)
Ill fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio, ‘Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter”, “Fortuna” (1640)
(Source)
Wisdom without honesty is mere craft and cozenage.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter (1641)
(Source)
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 (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter, para. 95 “Illiteratus Princeps” (1641)
From an aphorism by the Greek philosopher Carneades, quoted in by Montaigne, Essays, Book 3, ch. 7 "Of the Incommodity of Greatness" (1588): "Princes' children learnt nothing aright but to manage and ride horses; forsomuch as in all other exercises every man yieldeth and giveth them the victory; but a horse, who is neither a flatterer nor a courtier, will as soon throw the child of a king as the son of a base porter."
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English playwright and poet
Timber: Or, Discoveries, “Explorata” (1640)
Sir, calumnies are answer’d best with silence.