315 Quotes by Ben Jonson

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.

Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth, and all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the most ancient and most akin to nature. It is itself a silent work, and always one and the same habit.

Ramp up my genius, be not retrograde; But boldly nominate a spade a spade.

Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be one to us, to suffer them is valor too.

Prevent your day at morning.

Soul of the Age! / The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage! / My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by / Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie / A little further, to make thee a room; / Thou art a monument without a tomb.

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.

Court a mistress, she denies you; let her alone, she will court you.

Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction.