Quote

Confound these ancestors... They've stolen our best ideas!

Ben Jonson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Confound
Ancestors
Ancestor
Stolen
Humor
Funny
Best
Ideas

More quotes by Ben Jonson

Image
How near to good is what is fair!
Ben Jonson
Image
Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.
Ben Jonson
Image
A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
Ben Jonson
Image
Spread yourself upon his bosom publicly, whose heart you would eat in private.
Ben Jonson
Image
Reader look, not on his picture but his book.
Ben Jonson
Image
There is no doctrine will do good where nature is wanting.
Ben Jonson
Image
The covetous man never has money. The prodigal will have none shortly.
Ben Jonson
Image
Ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing.
Ben Jonson
Image
Where it concerns himself, Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.
Ben Jonson
Image
There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.
Ben Jonson
Image
I do honor the very flea of his dog.
Ben Jonson
Image
Good men but see death, the wicked taste it.
Ben Jonson
Image
Court a mistress, she denies you let her alone, she will court you.
Ben Jonson
Image
It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.
Ben Jonson
Image
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
Image
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.
Ben Jonson
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.
Ben Jonson
Image
The day For whose returns, and many, all these pray And so do I.
Ben Jonson