Quotes About Ben Jonson

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

If all you boast of your great art be true; Sure, willing poverty lives most in you.

There he sits a whole afternoon sometimes, reading of these same abominable, vile, (a pox on them, I cannot abide them!) rascally verses. Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour

Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, He'll bray you in a mortar.

Underneath this stone doth lieAs much beauty as could die;Which in life did harbor giveTo more virtue than doth live.

Oh, I could still(Like melting snow upon some craggy hill)Drop, drop, drop, drop,Since nature's pride is, now, a wither'd daffodil.

The players have often mentioned it as an honor to Shakespeare that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, "Would he had blotted a thousand."… I loved the man [Shakespeare] and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any.

Be not ashamed of thy virtues honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.

Riches are in fortune A greater good than wisdom is in nature.

I do honour the very flea of his dog.

Hood an ass with reverend purple, ... And he shall pass for a cathedral doctor (1. 2. 113-115)

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy

Hang sorrow, care'll kill a cat.

I admire him … idolatry: from Ben ('Old Ben') Jonson's eulogy for Shakespeare printed in his Timber, or Discoveries (1640): 'for I lov'd the man, and doe honour

I remember what Ben Jonson said: 'I've studied all the philosophies and all the theologies but cheerfulness keeps breaking through.

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