Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637)
English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, most famous for his plays Volpone and The Alchemist, his lyrics, his influence on Jacobean and Caroline poets, his theory of humours, his contentious personality, and his friendship and rivalry with William Shakespeare.
The burnt child dreads the fire.
Reader, look,
Not at his picture, but his book.
It must be done like lightning.
Preserving the sweetness of proportion and expressing itself beyond expression.
He hath consumed a whole night in lying looking to his great toe, about which he hath seen Tartars and Turks, Romans and Carthaginians, fight in his imagination.
The world knows only two, — that's Rome and I.
I will eat exceedingly, and prophesy.
Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing.
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.
Get money; still get money, boy,
No matter by what means.
'Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show
To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
And all the muses still were in their prime,
When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm
Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm!
Nature herself was proud of his designs,
And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines!
Which were so richly spun, and woven so sit,
As, since she will vouchsafe no other wit.
Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,
And almost every vice — almighty gold.
A good life is a main argument.
There's reason good, that you good laws should make:
Men's manners ne'er were viler, for your sake.
They say princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.
It was a mighty while ago.
Art hath an enemy call'd ignorance.
What gentle ghost, besprent with April dew,
Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?
Courses even with the sun
Doth her mighty brother run.
True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.