Top 160 Ben Jonson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.”

— Ben Jonson

2. “Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee; it springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.”

— Ben Jonson

3. “To struggle when hope is banished! To live when life’s salt is gone! To dwell in a dream that’s vanished- To endure, and go calmly on!”

— Ben Jonson

4. “He was not of an age, but for all time!”

— Ben Jonson

5. “That old bald cheater, Time.”

— Ben Jonson

6. “He that is respectless in his courses oft sells his reputation at cheap market.”

— Ben Jonson

7. “Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.”

— Ben Jonson

8. “I know no disease of the soul but ignorance, a pernicious evil, the darkener of man’s life, the disturber of his reason, and common confounder of truth.”

— Ben Jonson

9. “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.”

— Ben Jonson

10. “Our whole life is like a play.”

— Ben Jonson

11. “Ambition, like a torrent, never looks back.”

— Ben Jonson

12. “In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.”

— Ben Jonson

13. “Calumnies are answered best with silence.”

— Ben Jonson

14. “A good dog deserves a good bone.”

— Ben Jonson

15. “How near to good is what is fair!”

— Ben Jonson

16. “When a virtuous man is raised, it brings gladness to his friends, grief to his enemies, and glory to his posterity.”

— Ben Jonson

17. “Now we are all fallen, youth from their fear, And age from that which bred it, good example.”

— Ben Jonson

18. “Hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat.”

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

20. “Weigh the meaning and look not at the words.”

— Ben Jonson

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

— Ben Jonson

22. “Your highest female grace is silence.”

— Ben Jonson

23. “The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting.”

— Ben Jonson

24. “The soul of man is infinite in what it covets.”

— Ben Jonson

25. “Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.”

— Ben Jonson

26. “Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money.”

— Ben Jonson

27. “He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.”

— Ben Jonson

28. “Soul of the age! The applause! delight! The wonder of our stage!”

— Ben Jonson

29. “In the hope to meet. Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.”

— Ben Jonson

30. “All concord’s born of contraries.”

— Ben Jonson

31. “A good poet’s made as well as born.”

— Ben Jonson

32. “Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I’ll not look for wine.”

— Ben Jonson

33. “Sweet meat must have sour sauce.”

— Ben Jonson

34. “Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised.”

— Ben Jonson

35. “There is no greater hell than to be a prisoner of fear.”

— Ben Jonson

36. “True gladness doth not always speak; joy, bred and born but in the tongue, is weak.”

— Ben Jonson

37. “Aristotle was the first accurate critic and truest judge nay, the greatest philosopher the world ever had; for he noted the vices of all knowledges, in all creatures, and out of many men’s perfections in a science he formed still one Art.”

— Ben Jonson

38. “Success hath made me wanton.”

— Ben Jonson

39. “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.”

— Ben Jonson

40. “If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick.”

— Ben Jonson

41. “Very few men are wise by their own council, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool for a master.”

— Ben Jonson

42. “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

43. “Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.”

— Ben Jonson

44. “To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure.”

— Ben Jonson

45. “Riches are in fortune A greater good than wisdom is in nature.”

— Ben Jonson

46. “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.”

— Ben Jonson

47. “Great honours are great burdens, but on whom They are cast with envy, he doth bear two loads.”

— Ben Jonson

48. “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

49. “Silence in woman is like speech in man.”

— Ben Jonson

50. “I glory, more in the cunning purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.”

— Ben Jonson