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Reader look, not on his picture but his book.

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
Picture
Reader
Look
Book
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More quotes by Ben Jonson

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Ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing.
Ben Jonson
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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.
Ben Jonson
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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.
Ben Jonson
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True melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit.
Ben Jonson
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Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.
Ben Jonson
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There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it?
Ben Jonson
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All discourses but my own afflict me they seem harsh, impertinent, and irksome
Ben Jonson
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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.
Ben Jonson
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The voice so sweet, the words so fair, As some soft chime had stroked the air And though the sound had parted thence, Still left an echo in the sense.
Ben Jonson
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Neither do thou lust after that tawny weed tobacco.
Ben Jonson
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A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
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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The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray And so do I.
Ben Jonson
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I have no urns, no dusty monuments No broken images of ancestors, Wanting an ear, or nose no forged tales Of long descents, to boast false honors from.
Ben Jonson
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Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.
Ben Jonson
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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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If you succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again turn it new.
Ben Jonson
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If all you boast of your great art be true Sure, willing poverty lives most in you.
Ben Jonson
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Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction.
Ben Jonson
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O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
Ben Jonson