Ben Jonson quotes
Ben Jonson (1572–1637): English playwright, poet, and actor. The library holds 66 quotes by Ben Jonson, drawn from Every Man in his Humour, Catiline, Epicoene; Or, the Silent Woman and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, time, art, courage, power, beauty
The best-known Ben Jonson quotes
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What gentle ghost, besprent with April dew, Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?
Elegy on the Lady Jane Pawlet -
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.
Epicoene; Or, the Silent Woman, Act i. Sc. 1 -
The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.
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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 Forest. To Celia -
Get money; still get money, boy, No matter by what means.
Every Man in his Humour, Act ii. Sc. 3 -
Underneath this stone doth lie As much beauty as could die; Which in life did harbour give To more virtue than doth live.
Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H -
When affliction thunders over our roofs, to hide our heads and run into our graves shows us no men, but makes us fortune’s slaves.
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A certain degree of soul is indispensable to save us the expense of salt.
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Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.
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He that has been taught only by himself has had a fool for a master.
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Preserving the sweetness of proportion and expressing itself beyond expression.
The Masque of Hymen -
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.
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Have paid scot and lot there any time this eighteen years.
Every Man in his Humour, Act iii. Sc. 3 -
An innocent man needs no eloquence; his innocence is instead of it.
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Ill fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not.
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Ill fortune never crushes that man whom good fortune deceived not.
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Of all wild beasts, preserve me from a tyrant; and of all tame, a flatterer.
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True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, But in the worth and choice.
Cynthia’s Revels Disputed attribution -
No man can be a good poet without first being a good man.
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It will never out of the flesh that’s bred in the bone.
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Bad men excuse their faults; good men will leave them.
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Learning needs rest; sovereignty gives it. Sovereignty needs counsel; learning affords it.
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Let those that merely talk and never think, That live in the wild anarchy of drink.
Underwoods. An Epistle, answering to One that asked to be sealed of the -
No man can be a poet That is not a good cook, to know the palates And several tastes of the time.
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Let them call it mischief; When it is past and prosper’d it will be virtue.
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True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, But in the worth and choice: nor would I have Them popular: Let them be good that love me, though but few.
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Still may syllabes jar with time, Still may reason war with rhyme, resting never!
Underwoods. Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme -
Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee: it springs out of the most retired and inmost part of us.
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Let them call it mischief; when it’s past and prospered, ’twill be virtue.
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In small proportion we just beauties see, And in short measures life may perfect be.
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In small proportions we just beauties see, And in short measures life may perfect be.
Underwoods. To the immortal Memory of Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry -
Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast.
Epicoene; Or, the Silent Woman, Act i. Sc. 1 -
As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it.
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Boast not the titles of your ancestors, brave youth! They’re their possessions, none of yours.
Catiline -
Fear to do base unworthy things is valor; If they be done to us, to suffer them, Is valor too.
New Inn, Act iv., Sc. 3 -
Still may syllables jar with time, Still may reason war with rhyme.
Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme -
He was not of an age, but for all Time, Sweet Swan of Avon.
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In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.
Underwoods -
Fear to do base, unworthy things is valour; If they be done to us, to suffer them Is valour too.
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So wise, so grave, of so perplexed a tongue And loud withal, that could not wag, nor scarce Lie still, without a fee.
Valpone -
A valiant man Ought not to undergo or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways; He undertakes by reason, not by chance.
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True gladness doth not always speak; joy bred and born but in the tongue is weak.
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Care that is enter’d once into the breast, Will have the whole possession, ere it rest.
Tale of a Tub, Act i., Sc. 3 -
Turn him, and see his threads: look if he be Friend to himself, that would be friend to thee: For that is first required, a man be his own; But he that’s too much that is friend to none.
Underwood -
Great honours are great burdens; but on whom They’re cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.
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The gods grow angry with your patience: ’tis their care, And must be yours, that guilty men escape not: As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.
Catiline, Act iii., Sc. 4 -
Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold, And almost every vice,—almighty gold.
Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland -
Care that has enter’d once into the breast, Will have the whole possession ere it rest.
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A secret in his mouth, Is like a wild bird put into a cage, Whose door no sooner opens, but ’tis out.
Case is Altered, Act iii., Sc. 3 -
The world knows only two,—that’s Rome and I.
Sejanus, Act v. Sc. 1 -
Let not your sail be bigger than your boat.
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No greater hell than to be a slave to fear.
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Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee.
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Courses even with the sun Doth her mighty brother run.
The Gipsies Metamorphosed -
For a good poet’s made as well as born.
To the Memory of Shakespeare -
Poets are far rarer births than kings.
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Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse,—Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother. Death, ere thou hast slain another, Learn’d and fair and good as she, Time shall throw a dart at thee.
Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke -
How near to good is what is fair, Which we no sooner see, But with the lines and outward air Our senses taken be. We wish to see it still, and prove What ways we may deserve; We court, we praise, we more than love, We are not grieved to serve.
Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly -
A good king is a public servant.
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Small Latin, and less Greek.
To the Memory of Shakespeare
Where these quotes come from
- Every Man in his Humour (4 quotes)
- Catiline (3 quotes)
- Epicoene; Or, the Silent Woman (2 quotes)
- To the Memory of Shakespeare (2 quotes)
- Elegy on the Lady Jane Pawlet (1 quote)
- The Forest. To Celia (1 quote)
- Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H (1 quote)
- The Masque of Hymen (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .