Ben Jonson Quotes

Do not I know if women have a will
They'll do 'gainst all the watches o'the world?

(2. 7. 8-9)

His opinion of verses. That he wrote all his first in prose, for so his master Camden had learned him. That verses stood by sense without either colours or accent; which yet other times he denied.

Courses even with the sun Doth her mighty brother run.

Indeed there's a woundy luck in names.

A good life is a main argument.

SIR P: Sir, calumnies are answer'd best with silence.

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.

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.

I will eat exceedingly, and prophesy.

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.

Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing.

De te ții după umbră, fuge de tine; Fugi de ea, și te va urma.

CORV: Honour! tut, a breath: There's no such thing, in nature: a mere term Invented to awe fools.

"Hood an ass with reverend purple,
...
And he shall pass for a cathedral doctor"

(1. 2. 113-115)

But soft: I hear
Some vicious fool draw near,
That cries, we dream, and swears there's no such thing...