Quote

It is less dishonor to hear imperfectly than to speak imperfectly. The ears are excused the understanding is not.

Ben Jonson

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Ben Jonson
Age: 65 †
Born: 1572
Born: June 21
Died: 1637
Died: August 6
Actor
Literary Critic
Playwright
Poet
Writer
City of Westminster
Benjamin Jonson
Wit
Ears
Hear
Understanding
Less
Speak
Excused
Imperfectly
Dishonor

More quotes by Ben Jonson

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Words borrowed of Antiquity do lend a kind of Majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes. For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past Language, is the best.
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O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
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Ambition, like a torrent, ne'er looks back And is a swelling, and the last affection A high mind can put off being both a rebel Unto the soul and reason, and enforceth All laws, all conscience, treads upon religion, and offereth violence to nature's self.
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The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.
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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?
Ben Jonson
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I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue.
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Good men are the stars, the planets of the ages wherein they live, and illustrate the times.
Ben Jonson
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The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
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The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.
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The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray And so do I.
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I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence.
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Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.
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I feel my griefs too, and there scarce is ground Upon my flesh t'inflict another wound. Yet dare I not complain, or wish for death With holy Paul lest it be thought the breath Of discontent or that these prayers be For weariness of life, not love of thee.
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Confound these ancestors... They've stolen our best ideas!
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A good life is a main argument.
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Fortune, thou hadst no deity, if men Had wisdom.
Ben Jonson
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Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money.
Ben Jonson
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Freedom doth with degree dispense.
Ben Jonson
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Where it concerns himself, Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.
Ben Jonson
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I perceive affection makes a fool Of any man too much the father.
Ben Jonson