Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems. A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. A house in Dulwich College is named after him.
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“Words borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes.”
Ben Jonson
“He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.”
Ben Jonson
“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
Ben Jonson
“He wil sooner lose his best friend, then his least jest.”
Ben Jonson
“Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee”
Ben Jonson
“I feel my griefs too, and there scarce is groundUpon my flesh t'inflict another wound.Yet dare I not complain, or wish for deathWith holy Paul; lest it be thought the breathOf discontent; or that these prayers beFor weariness of life, not love of thee.”
Ben Jonson
“Though I am young, and cannot tell Either what Death or Love is well,Yet I have heard they both bear darts, And both do aim at human hearts.And then again, I have been told Love wounds with heat, as Death with cold;So that I fear they do but bring Extremes to touch, and mean one thing.As in a ruin we it call One thing to be blown up, or fall;Or to our end like way may have By a flash of lightning, or a wave;So Love’s inflamèd shaft or brand May kill as soon as Death’s cold hand;Except Love’s fires the virtue have To fight the frost out of the grave.”
Ben Jonson
“Indeed there's a woundy luck in names.”
Ben Jonson
“Soul of the age! The applause! delight! The wonder of our stage!”
Ben Jonson
“In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.”
Ben Jonson
“Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times”
Ben Jonson
“He was not of an age, but for all time!”
Ben Jonson
“Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.”
Ben Jonson
“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.”
Ben Jonson
“True happinessConsists not in the multitude of friends,But in the worth and choice.”
Ben Jonson
“Mischiefs feed / Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.”
Ben Jonson
“Riches, the dumb god that giv'st all men tongues, / That canst do nought, and yet mak'st men do all things; / The price of souls; even hell, with thee to boot, / Is made worth heaven!”
Ben Jonson