Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Ben Jonson (English Dramatist)

Benjamin Jonson (1572–1637) was a British actor, poet, playwright, scholar, critic, and translator. In a literary career of more than 40 years (twice as long as his friend Shakespeare’s) that produced over 60 plays, Jonson was influential in Elizabethan and Stuart drama. Known for his biting social satire, brilliant plotting, a span of social panorama, and original language, Jonson is reckoned as one of English literature’s fountainhead figures.

Jonson was born in London. His formal education ended prematurely. Jonson was raised near Westminster Abbey, where he enrolled at the abbey’s celebrated Westminster School. It was here in annual performances mounted by the school’s scholars that he got introduced to drama.

Rather than going to college, Jonson apprenticed as a bricklayer, becoming a journeyman by 1598. He fought as a volunteer foot soldier against the Spanish in the Netherlands and began his career as a playwright after first acting in one of London’s theater companies.

Jonson’s first drama was The Case Is Altered (1598,) a comedy derived from two plays by the Roman playwright Plautus. It was followed by Everyman in His Humour (1598) and Everyman out of His Humour (1599,) performed by Shakespeare’s drama company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which established Jonson as an emerging playwright.

Jonson’s undisputed masterpiece, Volpone (1606,) was performed to great acclaim at London’s Globe Theatre. His other notable works include The Alchemist (1610,) Bartholomew Fair (1614,) and The Devil Is an Ass (1616.) The Alchemist, more than any other of his dramas, established a new standard of dramatic construction and a realistic approach and subject for the theater.

Jonson was most admired for his comedies with contemporaneous audiences. He also wrote a series of court masques, which were simple plays in which the court’s lords and ladies acted. Even with his working-class background, Jonson showed a remarkable appreciation for the power of books and of print. His plays are full of erudite references, drawn from what must have been a substantial personal library.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ben Jonson

If you be sick, your own thoughts make you sick
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Disease, Sickness

The gods Grow angry with your patience. ‘Tis their care, And must be yours, that guilty men escape not: As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Guilt

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
Topics: Drinking

Be not ashamed of thy virtues; honor’s a good brooch to wear in a man’s hat at all times.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Honor

Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I will not look for wine.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Wine

Envy sets the stronger seal on desert; if he have no enemies, I should esteem his fortune most wretched.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Envy

‘Tis no shame to follow the better precedent.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Role models, Imitation

A secret in his mouth is like a wild bird put into a cage; whose door no sooner opens, but it is out.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Secrecy

O, for an engine, to keep back all clocks, or make the sun forget his motion!
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Time, Time Management

Let them call it mischief; when it’s past and prospered, it will be virtue.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Success, Revolution

I am grieved that it should be said he is my brother, and take these courses. Well, as he brews, so shall he drink, for George again. Yet he shall hear on’t, and tightly, too, an’ I live, i’faith.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Drinking

A new disease? I know not, new or old, but it may well be called poor mortals plague for, like a pestilence, it doth infect the houses of the brain till not a thought, or motion, in the mind, be free from the black poison of suspect.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Doubt

Vice is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Vice

In sovereignty it is a most happy thing not to be compelled, but so it is a most miserable thing not to be counselled.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Kings

All concord’s born of contraries.
—Ben Jonson

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Difficulties, Strength, Adversity

Art hath an enemy called ignorance
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Arts, Art, Artists, Enemy

Who falls for the love of God, shall rise a star.
—Ben Jonson

Silence in woman is like speech in men; deny it who can.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Silence

They that know no evil will suspect none.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Innocence, Evil

Blueness doth express trueness.
—Ben Jonson

Fear to do base and unworthy things is valor; if they be done to us, to suffer them is also valor.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Valor

We are persons of quality, I assure you, and women of fashion, and come to see and to be seen.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Socialism, Communism

What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the better part of life in! In scattering compliments, tendering visits, gathering and venting news, following feasts and plays, making a little winter-love in a dark corner.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Man

Guilt’s a terrible thing.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Guilt

To men pressed by their wants all change is ever welcome.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Change

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Advice

Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, He’ll bray you in a mortar.
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Arguments

Ambition makes more trusty slaves than need
—Ben Jonson
Topics: Ambition

He was a man versed in the world, as pilot in his compass; the needle pointed ever to that interest which was his loadstar; and he spread his sails with vantage to the gale of others’ passions.
—Ben Jonson

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *