Ben Jonson Men Quotations

No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech.

The two chief things that give a man reputation in counsel, are the opinion of his honesty, and the opinion of his wisdom; the authority of those two will persuade.

Honor's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times.

Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.

The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.

What excellent fools religion makes of men.

Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.

Man and wife make one fool.

A good man should and must Sit rather down with loss than rise unjust.

I perceive affection makes a fool Of any man too much the father.

Popular men, They must create strange monsters, and then quell them, To make their arts seem something.

Men that talk of their own benefits are not believed to talk of them because they have done them, but to have done them because they might talk of them.

Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom.

Many punishments sometimes, and in some cases, as much discredit a prince as many funerals a physician.

That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy will be at last bestowed by time.

I know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man's life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.

Very few men are wise by their own council, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master.

Ods me I marle what pleasure or felicity they have in taking their roguish tobacco. It is good for nothing but to choke a man, and fill him full of smoke and embers.

When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.

The covetous man never has money. The prodigal will have none shortly.

If men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man's being a good poet without first being a good man.

I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them.

Money never made any man rich, but his mind. He that can order himself to the law of nature, is not only without the sense, but the fear of poverty.

Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.

A thankful man owes a courtesy ever; the unthankful but when he needs it.

Aristotle was the first accurate critic and truest judge nay, the greatest philosopher the world ever had; for he noted the vices of all knowledges, in all creatures, and out of many men's perfections in a science he formed still one Art.

Let argument bear no unmusical sound.

Nor shall our cups make any guilty men; But at our parting, we will be, as when We innocently met.

To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.

No man is so foolish but may give another good counsel sometimes; and no man is so wise, but may easily err, if he will take no others counsel but his own. But 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.

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

It is virtue that gives glory; that will endenizen a man everywhere.

Each petty hand Can steer a ship becalm'd; but he that will Govern and carry her to her ends, must know His tides, his currents, how to shift his sails; What she will bear in foul, what in fair weathers; Where her springs are, her leaks, and how to stop 'em; What strands, what shelves, what rocks do threaten her.

Princes that would their people should do well Must at themselves begin, as at the head; For men, by their example, pattern out Their limitations, and regard of laws: A virtuous court a world to virtue draws.

Silence in woman is like speech in man.

The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.

Follow a shadow, it still flies you, Seem to fly, it will pursue: So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you. Say are not women truly, then, Styled but the shadows of us men?

Cut Men's throats with whisperings.

One woman reads another's character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering

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

Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee; it springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech.

A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.

A valiant man Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger, But worthily, and by selected ways, He undertakes with reason, not by chance. His valor is the salt t' his other virtues, They're all unseason'd without it.

For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style.

Truth is man's proper good, and the only immortal thing was given to our mortality to use.

A good man will avoid the spot of any sin. The very aspersion is grievous, which makes him choose his way in his life, as he would in his journey.

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.

It is not growing like a tree / In bulk, doth make men better be.

Follow a shadow, it still flies you,Seem to fly it, it will pursue.So court a mistress, she denies you;Let her alone, she will court you.Say, are not women truly, thenStyled but the shadows of us men?

Follow a shadow, it still flies you, Seem to fly it, it will pursue. So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you. Say, are not women truly, then Styled but the shadows of us men?

A good life is a main argument.

The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.

We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.

O! How vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do.

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.

To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

Heaven prepares good men with crosses; but no ill can happen to a good man.