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
Understanding
Less
Speak
Excused
Imperfectly
Dishonor
Wit
Ears
Hear

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It is the highest of earthly honors to be descended from the great and good. They alone cry out against a noble ancestry who have none of their own.
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What excellent fools religion makes of men.
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The pipe marks the point at which the orangutan ends and man begins.
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Affliction teacheth a wicked person sometime to pray prosperity never.
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Tis not the wholesome sharp mortality, Or modest anger of a satiric spirit, That hurts or wounds the body of a state, But the sinister application Of the malicious, ignorant, and base Interpreter who will distort and strain The general scope and purpose of an author To his particular and private spleen.
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Calumnies are answered best with silence.
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Queen and huntress, chaste and fair Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light Goddess, excellently bright.
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The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him.
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Tis the common disease of all your musicians that they know no mean, to be entreated, either to begin or end.
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No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech.
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Silence in woman is like speech in man.
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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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Nothing is more short-lived than pride.
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Well, I will scourge those apes, And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror, As large as is the stage whereon we act Where they shall see the time's deformity Anatomised in every nerve, and sinew, With constant courage, and contempt of fear.
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Come, my Celia, let us prove, While we can, the sports of love, Time will not be ours for ever, He, at length, our good will sever Spend not then his gifts in vain: Suns that set may rise again But if once we lose this light, 'Tis with us perpetual night. Why should we defer our joys? Fame and rumour are but toys.
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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.
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Many punishments sometimes, and in some cases, as much discredit a prince as many funerals a physician.
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Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example.
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Drink today, and drown all sorrow You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow Best, while you have it, use your breath There is no drinking after death.
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Nothing is a courtesy unless it be meant us, and that friendly and lovingly. We owe no thanks to rivers that they carry our boats, or winds that they be favoring and fill our sails, or meats that they be nourishing for these are what they are necessarily. Horses carry us, trees shade us but they know it not.
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