Ben Jonson Quotes - Page 4

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.

How ready is heaven to those that pray!

Love that is ignorant and hatred have almost the same ends.

Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.

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.

Tis no sin love's fruits to steal; But the sweet thefts to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.

Many might go to heaven with half the labour they go to hell, if they would venture their industry the right way.

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

O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!

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

He that departs with his own honesty For Vulgar , doth it too dearly buy.

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.

I do honor the very flea of his dog.

He threatens many that hath injured one.

Nor for my peace will I go far, As wanderers do, that still do roam, But make my strengths, such as they are, Here in my bosom, and at home.

It strikes! one, two, Three, four, five, six. Enough, enough, dear watch, Thy pulse hath beat enough. Now sleep and rest; Would thou could'st make the time to do so too; I'll wind thee up no more.

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.

Hell itself must yield to industry.

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.

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

Let argument bear no unmusical sound.

If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick

Tell troth and shame the devil.

Folly often goes beyond her bounds, but impudence knows none.

The burnt child dreads the fire.